NBA - 803 Oklahoma City Thunder @ 804 Charlotte Bobcats
Projected Line: Oklahoma City by 18 points
Oklahoma City had a tougher game than expected last night at New York against the Knicks. With that, Kevin Durant played 44 minutes, Serge Ibaka 40 minutes and Russell Westbrook 36 minutes. The good part is that they will face the Bobcats, who are back at their historically bad level from last season. On their last game, the Bobcats had a nice first half against Brooklyn. Brook Lopez struggled against Bismack Biyombo, finishing the first half with just one field goal. On the other hand, thanks to a low defensive effort from the Nets, Charlotte was able to make easy shots at the rim and this was how they scored 53 points in the first half.
“We were getting to the paint a lot more in the first half, whether that was putting it in off pick-and-rolls or in transition,” Gerald Henderson described. “There was nothing to get (in the second half). It’s not like we were just settling for jumpers.”
However, Brooklyn woke up in the second half and they shutdown the paint, forcing Charlotte to become a jump shooting team, something that resulted on a disaster for them: 3-9 FG from 10-15 feet, 7-21 FG from 16-23 feet and 4-18 treys! That's 14-48 (29%) FG from +10 feet. If we add the 31-11 rebounding edge for the Nets on the second half, it's easy to understand why the Nets crushed Charlotte after the break. So, I find it very hard for the Thunder not to win this game by a margin close to 20 points. We are talking about one of the most competitive teams in the league, so they won't show lack of focus tonight just because they're facing Charlotte.
The Bobcats won't have Ramon Sessions tonight, so Kemba Walker will have to play heavy minutes on a tough matchup against Russell Westbrook. With Sessions, the Bobcats would have a solid backup to do some damage against the Thunder's second unit, but without him, Oklahoma City's athletic ability will pack the paint against Charlotte. who will heavily struggle on their outside shooting as usual. Oklahoma City will have a lot of transition points as well. On the first game played between these two teams, Oklahoma City defeated at home Charlotte by 45 points, with Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions shooting 1-15 FG! I expect the Thunder to have a win tonight by 20 points or something similar, therefore I'll be taking the Thunder tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 803 Oklahoma City Thunder (-14) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes
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