Thursday night NBA and we will see the Oklahoma City Thunder travel to Talking Stick Resort Arena to take on the Phoenix Suns. The game has a start time of 10:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Current Vegas betting odds have the Thunder listed as 4 point favorites, while the total is set at 217.
Analysis: The Oklahoma City Thunder come in a hot team as they have won their last 7 games in a row. OKC is now 35-25 on the year overall, but still if the playoffs started today they would only be in the 8th and final slot in the West. The Thunder have struggled on the road where they are just 13-17 on the year. OKC has gone 7-0 ATS in their last 7 games overall, but just 4-13 ATS in their last 17 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. Oklahoma City has been an average offensive team this year, ranking 12th in scoring (101.2 ppg), 18th in shooting, 25th in 3 point shooting and 16th in FT shooting. The defense for this team has been decent as they come in ranked 11th in points allowed (98.6 ppg), 2nd in defensive FG% and 7th in 3 point defense.
The Phoenix Suns come in out of the playoffs if they started today and they are struggling right now as they have won just 1 of their last 9 games. For the year Phoenix is 29-28 overall, including 13-16 at home. Phoenix has gone 4-1 ATS the last 5 meetings in the series, but just 2-8 ATS in their last 10 vs. the Western Conference. The Suns have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 3rd in scoring (106.1 ppg), 7th in shooting, 9th in 3 point shooting and 4th in FT shooting. Defensively the Suns have not been good at all this year, ranking 28th in points allowed (105.2 ppg), 21st in defensive FG% and 24th in 3 point defense.
Pick: This one has the potential of being high coring and it may, just not this high. The suns can score plenty but they will be taking on a hot OKC defense that has allowed just 93.4 ppg in their last 5 games. They have really needed to step it up defensively as their offense has taken a hit with the absence of Durant. they have still scored 108.6 ppg in their last 5 game and may have another good offensive game vs this Phoenix defense, but still I feel it will be the OKC defense that keeps the scoring in this game under 210 points. Interesting to note here that the under is 21-5 in the Suns' last 26 games on Thursday night. A hard trend to ignore, especially with an OU line this high.
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Handicapping Tips: NBA Betting
Bryan Leonard and Steve Fezzik, from Pregame.com discuss some handicapping tips for betting the NBA.