NBA Basketball
2010-11-29 - New Orleans at Oklahoma City
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States: NBA Basketball
Monday 29 November 2010 - Tip-Off 8pm ET
1am (British Standard Time)
Preview
A tough battle is expected here as two teams look to get back to winning ways after a slight cool off in the last week. Oklahoma City Thunder (11-6) have lost 2 of their last 3 games after winning 5 in a row, while the New Orleans Hornets (12-4) have lost 3 of their last 4 since opening the season with an 11-1 record.
New Orleans allowed a season high 109 points to the San Antonio Spurs in their last game, after holding teams to 91 points on average throughtout the early part of the campaign. To make matters feel that much worse, the Hornets had built a 17 point lead by half time but were comfortably outscored in the 2nd half.
Both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had struggled a little in their 1 point loss to Houston last night. Durant had a season low 18 points, and had scored at least 23 in his last 10 games, while Westbrook scored just 23 points after putting up 43 in his previous game.
Oklahoma City will also be wary of the return of Chris Paul to face them. The Thunder had won the last 2 games against New Orleans when Paul was injured but have lost 10 in a row against them when Paul is playing and are yet to beat them at home since their move from Seattle.
Kevin Durant will hope to find his game again and has averaged 32 points and shot over 56% from the field in his last 5 games with New Orleans. Chris Paul has averaged 20 points and 11 Assists in 8 games against Oklahoma City.
Head to Head
The favourite coming into the game is 15-6 against the spread in the last 21 games in the series.
The Thunder are 4-2 against the spread in their recent games against one another.
New Orleans are 1-6-1 against the spread in their last 8 games.
Prediction
This should be a close game for a while as shown by the spread set out and it could be fun to watch... well more fun than the NFL offering anyways.
Chris Paul will need to be guarded here but Oklahoma City do match up well with New Orleans in other areas and in Russell Westbrook, they have a PG that can match Paul.
I expect Kevin Durant to have a bigger game than last night and also feel the edge belongs to the Thunder as long as Jeff Green remains in the line up as I expect he will do.
I'll look to Oklahoma City to cover minus the points.
The Pick :
Oklahoma City Thunder 101-95 New Orleans
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll pick Oklahoma City Thunder - 3.5 Points
