New Years Day: OKC Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs NBA Lines Preview
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Thunder at Spurs Matchup / Lines
Date/Time: Saturday, January 1, 8:30 PM ET
Venue: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
Broadcast: FOX SW
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs Betting Lines from SportsInteraction.com
Money Line: Thunder (+220) Spurs (-300)
Spread: Spurs -6.5
Over/Under: 204.5
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Oklahoma City Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs Preview
A couple of hot teams face each other on New Year’s Day with the San Antonio Spurs (28-4) hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder (23-11). The Spurs have the best record in the NBA, have won 3 straight, and are 9-1 in their last 10 games while the Thunder have won 2 in a row and are 7-3 in their last 10 games. NBA lines have the Spurs as 6.5-point favorites in this game with a total of 204.5.
In their last games the Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks 99-93 on Friday night and the Thunder beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-93 on Thursday night,
This season the Spurs not only have the best record, but they are also one of the best betting teams going 19-12-1 ATS and the Thunder are at 18-16 ATS.
The Thunder are not a very good team on D ranking 20th in the league in opponents’ points allowed and they will be facing a Spurs’ team that ranks 5th in the league in scoring.
The Spurs are a NBA best 18-2 at home while the Thunder are a legit away team going 10-5 away from Oklahoma City.
The Spurs have won 4 straight against the Thunder including beating them this season 117-104 on November 14th in Oklahoma City. In that game the Thunder played pretty good defense despite giving up 117 points holding the Spurs to only 40.9% shooting from the floor, but they allowed the Spurs to shoot 55% from beyond the 3-point arc. In that game reserve San Antonio PF Matt Bonner drained 7 3-point bombs.
Tim Duncan bounced back from only scoring 2 points against the Lakers to score 17 points and grab 11 boards against the Mavs. He has played great against the Thunder in his career recording 33 double doubles in 47 games against them. The Thunder are not a good team inside and they have to man up as a team and keep Duncan from especially beating them on the boards.
With their problems on the defensive end they may have to score a lot of points and they will need a good game from Kevin Durant (28.3 ppg), who leads the NBA in scoring. PG Russell Westbrook (22.3 ppg) ranks 13th in the league in scoring and he left with a stinger in the Atlanta win, but is expected to go in this game. These 2 combined for 56 points in the Hawks’ game and they will be counted on for the majority of the scoring.
The Thunder shot over 55% from 3-point land in the Hawks’ game and they may have to bomb away from deep to beat the Spurs tonight.
If Westbrook is not 100% it hurts the Thunder on D, as Tony Parker (17.8 ppg) has been playing well and was the high scorer of the game with 24 points in the match up earlier this season.
Who will play D on Manu Ginobili (19 ppg)? He creates match up problems for any team and the Thunder have to keep him from penetrating and hitting the deep 3. However, he has struggled shooting in the last few games and if that happens again the Thunder have a good shot to win this game.
On the injury front Russell Westbrook of the Thunder and George Hill of the Spurs are both day-to-day, but are expected to play in this game.
The Spurs have proved they are still an elite team and the Thunder are not quite there yet, especially with their lapses on defense. Duncan and Parker will have another great game and the Spurs will win their 5th straight against the Thunder tonight. The game will not be a blowout, but the Spurs will cover the 6.5-point spread.
Betting Trends
Oklahoma City is 9-3 ATS in their last 12 games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog and San Antonio is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games as a home favorite of 5.0-10.5.
Pick: Spurs -6.5
