Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs continues on Saturday night and we will see Oklahoma City Thunder travel to the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee to take on the Memphis Grizzlies in game 4 of their best-of-seven series. The game has a start time of 9:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Vegas odds have the Thunder listed as 3 point favorites, while the total sits at 188.5.
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, before the grizzlies won Game 2 and the Thunder took game 3. The win in game 3 now has the Thunder at 26-16 on the road this year, but still are just 4-7-1 ATS in their last 12 meetings with Memphis. The Thunder averaged 104.6 ppg on the year, but in 3 playoff games so far they have scored just 100 ppg. In the playoffs, Kevin Durant leads the team in scoring, averaging 33.5 ppg, while Russell Westbrook is second, at 27.3 ppg and Serge Ibaka checks in with 14.7 ppg, which is 3rd on the team. Defensively the Thunder have held the Grizzlies to 98.3 ppg on 43.3% shooting so far.
Last year the Grizzlies shocked the Thunder by taking them out of the playoffs, but right now it is the Thunder that is exacting some revenge as the Grizzlies find themselves down 2 games to 1. The Grizzlies are still a solid 28-14 on their home floor this year. During the regular season the Grizzlies ranked 27th in the league in scoring, averaging just 96.1 ppg and through 3 games thus far they have averaged 98.3 ppg. Not a very good FT shooting team as they hit just 74.1% from the line, which was 23rd in the league. Zach Randolph (20.7 ppg) and Mike Conely (18.3 ppg) lead the team in playoffs scoring, while Marc Gasol (15.3 ppg) and Tony Allen (11.3 ppg) round out the top 4 scorers on the team. Defensively this was a very solid team in the regular season, ranking 3rd in the league in points allowed (94.6 ppg) and 9th in defensive FG% (45.0%).
Pick: I will be taking the Under here. I think the Odds are pretty slim for this one to go into OT and had their been no OT in the last game it would have been an easy Under winner. Memphis home games will be lower scoring than the games played at OKC and I don't see this one coming all that close to the high 180's.
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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.