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Washington at Oklahoma City NBA Betting Pick & Game Info
When: Thursday, 8 PM ET Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City TV: TNT Stream: NBA League Pass Radio: 1500 AM (Washington) / WWLS-The Sports Animal 98.1 FM (Oklahoma City) Opening NBA Betting Odds: Thunder -5.5 (213.5)Season Series
It’s the first meeting and they play again next Tuesday in D.C. The five-day turnaround is the quickest Washington has with a Western Conference team this season. The teams split last year, each winning at home. Washington’s 120-98 victory was its largest margin of victory against a Western Conference team since a 119-89 win over the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 5, 2014. But the Wizards haven’t won a road game in the series since March 26, 2006 – 104-99, when the team was the Seattle Supersonics. Wizards Coach Scott Brooks was the head coach of the Thunder for seven seasons (2008-15), carrying a 545-338 record in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant was upset the Thunder fired Brooks. Many thought the Wizards hired him in hopes Durant would sign as a free agent with his hometown team, but he never even considered Washington before going to Golden State. Three All-Stars will be in this game: Washington’s John Wall and Bradley Beal and OKC’s Russell Westbrook.Latest NBA Betting Trends
- Washington is 1-8 ATS in the last 9 games
- Washington is 3-6 SU in the last 9 games on the road
- The total went OVER in 5 of Washington’s last 7 games
- Oklahoma City is 1-5 ATS in the last 6 games at home
- Oklahoma City is 5-0 SU in the last 5 games
- The total went UNDER in 4 of Oklahoma City’s last 6 games
Why Bet on Washington?
Not sure I would as the Wizards are wildly inconsistent and have covered just one of their past nine games. There has been some in-fighting as well. The team had a players-only meeting recently but not only did it not fix things, it might have made them worse. “We didn’t accomplish what we needed to accomplish in that meeting,” Beal said. “It was tough. I try to keep all our stuff as personal as possible but I think in a way not everybody got a chance to speak whenever they wanted to. They didn’t want to bring up an issue or something they had a problem with on the team.” Wall was more direct: “A couple guys took it the negative way and it hurt our team. Instead of taking it in a positive way like we did in the past and using it to build our team up, it kind of set us back a little bit.” The Wizards seem to struggle most against bad teams. They had no right losing 98-75 in Dallas on Monday. Wall and Mavs guard J.J. Barea had a bit of an on-court issue and then after the game, Barea said this: “Now I have somebody in the NBA that I don’t like. That’s my first. I don’t like him at all now. But I don’t think his teammates like him, either. So it’s nothing new for him.” Wall has publicly acknowledged chemistry issues with Beal in the past. The Wizards are way too talented to be closer to missing the playoffs in the East than to the second seed. The team could be without small forward Otto Porter in this one as he left the Dallas game with a hip issue. However, he did practice on Wednesday. If he’s out, Kelly Oubre would start.Why Bet on Oklahoma City?
The Thunder won their fifth straight game Tuesday, 109-108 over Brooklyn as Westbrook made a go-ahead layup with 3.3 seconds left. Westbrook had 32 points and Paul George added 28 points and nine rebounds after being left off the NBA All-Star roster earlier in the day. Oklahoma City committed a season-low four turnovers. Carmelo Anthony had an off night vs. the Nets, scoring 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting. He hit a pair of free throws in 33 minutes, adding eight rebounds and one block. He was coming off one of the best stretches of his season with 25.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists. He’s been focusing on his rebounding lately because he doesn’t want to get embarrassed during film sessions: “I hate to look at film and coaches getting on me about not rebounding the basketball,” he said.
Anthony is currently just 30 points away from 25,000 career points, which will make him just the 21st player in NBA history and the 10th forward to reach that mark. Once he reaches this milestone, he will become one of just four players in league history with as many points while shooting at least 34.5% from three-point range (Dirk Nowitzki, Reggie Miller, Paul Pierce).
Across the last five games, OKC has averaged a +13.5 point-differential and only gave up four turnovers last game, the second-fewest in Thunder history. OKC is now 14-0 since Dec. 1 when playing with all five starters. The Thunder outrebounded opponents by more than 20 boards in each of the three games from Jan. 15-20, marking the first streak of this kind in Thunder history. Oklahoma City leads the league in steals per game (9.38) and opponent turnovers per game (16.3).
Oklahoma City holds an 8-0 record against the Wizards when playing at Chesapeake Energy Arena and holds a +11.13 point differential across those games.
