The NBA Finals continues on Thursday night in Game 2 between the visiting Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The NBA Finals odds for the game have the home town Thunder favored by a spread of 5.5 points. The game is scheduled for an 9:00 pm start time and it will be televised live on ABC. The spread shows that bookmakers have a prediction of a close win at home for the Thunder, taking a comfortable 2-0 series lead in the Finals.
Picks: The Heat played a solid contest for three quarters on Tuesday night, but then were taken over by Kevin Durant in the final 12 minutes. LeBron James and the Heat led for more of the game, only to see Durant and the Thunder score 31 fourth quarter points to almost pull away from Miami late. Dwyane Wade said after the game that Durant came through when his team needed him. That's entirely true, but where was he and James? Durant's 17 fourth quarter points gave fans in Oklahoma City a collective sigh of relief after the tough, close contest had them possibly thinking about falling in an 0-1 hole despite having home court advantage. Now the pressure is all on Miami and they don't exactly have history on their side right now. Only five teams since 1990 have been able to rebound from an 0-1 hole to win the NBA Title, the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, the 1998 and 1991 Chicago Bulls and even the 2006 Miami Heat. So then again, maybe they do have some type of history on their side. But last year they earned the first win in the Finals and ended up losing. The Heat led Game 1 by four points at halftime but were outscored in the third quarter, when Oklahoma City was able to catch up and eventually take a single point lead heading into the fourth. Miami has struggled in the third quarter to date this year, going 0-6 when losing the scoring battle in the third quarter and 12-1 when they tie or outscore their opponents in the third quarter. I'm sure I don't have to point out to you that the Heat would love to hold a third quarter advantage tonight. This is the first time the Heat have lost the opening game to a series since last season's conference finals against the Bulls. And to top that off, it gets even worse for the James crew. No team in NBA playoff history has won a championship after trailing in three different series. Miami has now trailed in three series this postseason. Yet, with how the team played in the opening game of this series, I still think they have a chance to win tonight.
Prediction: James, Wade and the gang know they gave up a winnable game on Tuesday night. Or did Durant just take it from them? I guess whichever way you lean is good enough. Tonight Wade is going off. He's been the talk of everyone with an opinion on the game and series the past 24 hours or so and there is no way he let's himself continue to be LeBron's sidekick at this point in the series. This is his team and tonight he'll show that with a monster performance. I think that directly leads to a Miami win on the road. Miami 102, OKC 98
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NBA Free Picks: Miami Heat at Oklahoma City Thunder - Game 2
What NBA bettors need to know about Heat at Thunder Game 2 - with Pregame.com's Scott Spreitzer and host Marco D'Angelo.