Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs continues on Thursday night and we will see Oklahoma City Thunder travel to the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee to take on the Memphis Grizzlies in game 3 of their best-of-seven series. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on NBA TV. Vegas odds have the Thunder listed as 1.5 point favorites, while the total sits at 189.
Stat Packs: The zig-zag theory was in effect in this series as the Oklahoma City Thunder took game 1 of the series by 14 points, but Memphis got even with a 111-105 OT win in game 2. Still this is a very good Thunder team that will most like take 1 of the 2 games in Memphis to get their home court advantage back. The Thunder went 25-16 on the road this year, but are just 3-7-1 ATS in their last 11 meetings with Memphis. The Thunder have average 104.6 ppg on 45.9% shooting on the road this year, while they have allowed 101.2 ppg on 43.9% shooting in their away games for the year. In the playoffs, Kevin Durant leads the team in scoring, averaging 34.5 ppg, while Russell Westbrook is second, at 26.0 ppg and Serge Ibaka checks in with 16 ppg, which is 3rd on the team.
Memphis fell down huge in the first half of game 1, before making a furious comeback in the 2nd half. They at one point cut the lead to 2 points before Oklahoma City pulled away again, winning by 14. In game 2 it was a nailbiter tom the End, but the Grizzlies got the job done in OT to even the series at 1. During the regular season the Grizzlies ranked 27th in the league in scoring, averaging just 96.1 ppg, but they are a good shooting team as they hit 46.4% from the field, which was 7th in the league. Not a very good FT shooting team as they hit just 74.1% from the line, which was 23rd in the league. Zach Randolph (17.4 ppg) and Mike Conely (17.2) lead the team in scoring and both have been solid in the first two games, as Randolph scored 23 ppg and pulled down 8.5 rpg, while Mike Conley put in 16.5 ppg and dished out 11.5 apg in the two games. Defensively this is a very solid team that ranks 3rd in the league in points allowed (94.6 ppg) and 9th in defensive FG% (45.0%).
Pick: Im going with the Under in this one. The teams played one high scoring game and one low scoring game at Oklahoma City, but now they are at Memphis, where the majority of their games are low scoring.A Big part of that is due to the fact that they have allowed just 96 ppg on 44.8% shooting on their home floor this year and when these teams met here back in January, the Grizzlies allowed just 87 points to the Thunder. Speaking of the Thunder, they have allowed 101.2 ppg on the road, but on just 43.9% shooting, so they can play solid defense away from home. When a series is tied it makes game three very important and that should bring about a slower paced game and more defensive intensity. This one should be rated higher but one of the Refs (David Jones) has been involved in 18 overs and 5 unders in games where the OU line is between 185 and 194.5 this year. Still I still can't see this one hitting the high 180's at all, especially on this floor.
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NBA Playoff Update #1
Steve Fezzik, from Pregame.com, give his thoughts on how the NBA playoffs have gone so far and what to look for in the future.