Free NBA Pick: Thunder vs. Cavaliers NBA Odds
Looking for Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers free NBA picks & NBA Odds? NBA betting sees the Thunder taking on the Cavaliers on Saturday, January 22nd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio. Cappers Picks provides complimentary expert handicapping picks on all NBA basketball matchups so stay tuned for more FREE daily NBA hoops predictions like this Thunder Cavaliers matchup.
2022 NBA Handicapping
(14-31) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (27-19)
Date: Saturday, January 22nd
Time: 8:00 PM (ET)
Venue: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
NBA Moneyline Odds: Thunder + 700 | Cavaliers -820 (Bet Now!)
NBA Betting Odds: Cavaliers -12.5
NBA Betting Total: 208.5
Saturday, January 22nd the Oklahoma City Thunder face the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second time this season. Cleveland won the initial match 107-102 on January 15th.
Cleveland has been off since Wednesday when they lost to the Bulls 104-117 while the Thunder played a back-to-back road set facing the Hornets on Friday in a 98-121 loss.
All-time the Cavaliers have the advantage winning 68 of 118 matches with the teams splitting their matches last season each winning on the opposing court.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The year 2022 hasn’t been great for the Thunder who have a single victory in ten contests. While that isn’t ideal, in the case of OKC it’s sort of what Sam Presti is hoping for as the club positions themselves to finish in the bottom three in order to win the draft lottery.
While they aren’t winning (much) they are in more games than not. To wit, of those eight losses in 2022, half were lost by five points or less, and considering their win total the fact they rank 20th in clutch time perhaps speaks to how close they are to taking a step up the ladder.
With so many draft picks at his disposal losing (and player development) is the main objective for Presti as presumably, he’s hoping to take advantage of the draft for the next few seasons prior to reestablishing themselves as a playoff squad.
They’re accomplishing that goal as they’ve slipped to a tie for that third and final coveted bottom three slot but since the Rockets won the tie-break they would be one of those three teams with only the Magic and Rockets currently beneath them and the Pistons playing better in the New Year.
The positive takeaway halfway into the season is the play and fit of rookie Josh Giddey beside cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and defensive stalwart Luguentz Dort.
Vit Krejci (ankle) is out indefinitely.
Cleveland Cavaliers
In the East, there were several teams on a hot streak with the Cavs in the mix having won five of six on the road then beating the Nets at home in the difficult first game back.
But, on Wednesday, they faced a desperate Bulls club who had lost four in a row, are in the same division, and had two vets who were intent on making sure that streak didn’t reach five. Chicago accomplished that goal with the victory.
Lauri Markkanen was the top Cavs scorer with 28 points plus eight rebounds. Darius Garland delivered another double-double (his 14th this season) with 20 points and 12 assists.
The Cleveland Towers did their part with Evan Mobley offering 18 points, five rebounds, two assists, a steal, and two blocks while Jarrett Allen hit double-figure rebounds with 10 but had a quiet scoring night (six points).
Kevin Love chipped in 13 points as the only other Cavalier to reach double-digit scoring.
Lamar Stevens (knee) was upgraded to probable while Rajon Rondo (hamstring) is questionable for Saturday. Ricky Rubio (ACL) and Collin Sexton (knee) are both lost for the season.
NBA Betting Trends:
- The Thunder are 13-5-1 ATS in their last 19 games.
- The Cavaliers are 7-2 SU in their last 9 games at home.
- The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Oklahoma City’s last 12 games.
Free Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Prediction
OKC has struggled in the second game of a back-to-back having won only once (Lakers) in six previous opportunities. Of those five losses, all but one was by double-digits so the 12.5 spread isn’t an outlier.
That said because the Thunder got blown out on Friday, Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were the only OKC players to log more than 30 minutes (33) so they’ll be fresher than normal and looking to even the score versus Cleveland.
While I’m tempted to take the Cavs ATS I’m taking the points because the one area the Cavs have difficulty with is strong backcourts which happens to be OKC’s greatest positional strength.
4* Free NBA Betting Pick: Thunder -12.5
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