Oklahoma City Thunder | Betting Blog

Miami Heat Level NBA Finals Series & Odds

Jun 172012

The Miami Heat are back in the NBA Finals. They were able to go on the road and steal Game 2 of this series to flip home court advantage back in their favor. That being said, if they want to finish this series at the American Airlines Arena, they are going to have to win three straight games to get the job done. The Oklahoma City Thunder know that they need just one of the three games on the road to be able to come back to Chesapeake Energy Arena with a shot at clinching their first ever championship.

Game 3 of this series starts on Sunday night, and one of these teams will be able to break the de facto deadlock. Miami and Oklahoma City are both -115 right now at Bookmaker Sportsbook to win this series, and we really could see this one going either way.

The Heat are now essentially at full strength, and they are getting great contributions from all of the parties that need to be accounted for. LeBron James has now had back to back games where he has reset his all-time high for points in an NBA Finals game, scoring 30 in Game 1 and 32 in Game 2. Dwyane Wade hasn’t been the greatest, but he did account for 24 points in Game 2 to help lead his team. Most importantly though, is Chris Bosh, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Heat three nights ago. The key stat for Bosh, though? He played 41 minutes, just as many as most of the starters did.

Mario Chalmers had 16 points in Game 1, but he faded in Game 2, scoring just three. However, Shane Battier has been a man on a mission, hitting a slew of shots from the outside on a regular basis. He had five triples in Game 2 and came away with a monster 17 points that proved to be the difference in the game.

Oklahoma City has gotten off to some really slow starts in this series thus far, and it needs to improve that or risk getting run off of the court in South Beach in Games 3, 4, and 5. Russell Westbrook is taking a lot of heat for taking so many shots, but we think that he did just fine in Game 2, scoring 27 points, coming down with eight boards and seven assists against just two turnovers. Kevin Durant had 32, while James Harden came off of the bench to score 21. Nick Collison had a good game in Game 1, accounting for eight points and 10 boards, but he and the rest of his role playing teammates really had nothing to be thrilled about in Game 2. Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha combined to go just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc, and that isn’t going to cut it to say the least.

Game 3 takes place on Sunday, Game 4 is on Tuesday, and Game 5 is going to be on Thursday night. All three games will take place at American Airlines Arena. The scene of this series will shift back to Oklahoma City for Game 6 if necessary a week from today.

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Oklahoma City Thunder Favored On NBA Finals Odds Over Miami Heat

Betting Odds, NBA Betting

Jun 122012

The 2012 NBA Finals was projected to be the Miami Heat against the Oklahoma City Thunder for quite some time. Virtually every step of the way, from the first tip on Christmas night all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Miami was the team that was the favorite, and usually the odds on favorite, to make it to a second straight NBA Finals. Oklahoma City was that up and coming team that was right on the verge last year of the Finals, and anything less than a championship this year would probably be looked upon as a disappointment.

That might not be a surprise, but what is a bit shocking is the fact that it is the Thunder that are the -165 favorites on the NBA Finals betting lines in this series and not the Heat.

Of course, those who had blinders on for most of the season would probably think that Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh would make up the best threesome on the court. Last year in the NBA Finals though, the Dallas Mavericks found a way to really frustrate these three stars, and parlayed that with the sharpshooting of Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, and the outcome was predictable.

This year, we’ll think about it in foresight instead of hindsight. Oklahoma City has three players in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden that actually average almost as many points per game here in the playoffs than the Super Friends in South Beach. Beyond that, the next best players on Miami are Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, and Mike Miller. Meanwhile, the next five for the Thunder are Serge Ibaka, Derek Fisher, Thabo Sefolosha, and Kendrick Perkins. Which squad would you rather have?

There’s almost something to really be said about the fact that what these two have done in the postseason really isn’t all that comparable. Miami took care of the New York Knicks in the first round, had its struggles with the Indiana Pacers in the second round, and then needed the distance to knock off the Boston Celtics in the conference finals. All told, the Heat have played 18 games thus far. The Thunder? Just 15. They swept the defending champs from Dallas, blasted past the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, and then took out the San Antonio Spurs. The last series came after San Antonio opened up a 2-0 series lead. Not only did Oklahoma City beat the Spurs to end that skid, but from that point on, it dominated the series and ended up winning in just six games.

This year, these two teams hooked up in NBA betting action twice, with the home team winning and covering both games. If that trend holds, the Thunder will have the upper hand, playing Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

This is the first time that the Thunder have played in the NBA Finals in this form. They did make it to the Promised Land once in 1996 as the Seattle Supersonics, but that team was never the favorite to win it all. This one has the upper hand and has home court advantage in the series.

The Heat are playing under the pressure of protecting the job for Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, who really might be in some danger if this is the second straight year that his team gets knocked out of the playoffs in the NBA Finals, thus ending without a championship.

2012 Western Conference Finals Series Preview

Betting Odds, NBA Betting

May 242012

The 2012 NBA playoffs will get their third round underway on Sunday in the Lone Star State, where the much anticipated series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs will get underway. Don’t miss our 2012 Western Conference Finals series NBA betting preview!

Bookmaker Sportsbook currently has the Spurs listed as the -210 favorites to move on to the NBA Finals, and it is hard to argue with that point. We know that the Thunder were one of the best teams in the NBA all season long, but it is hard to dispute the run that San Antonio went on at the end of the year. The team closed out the season by winning its final 10 games to lock up the No. 1 seed in the West, and now, it is 18-0 SU and 15-2-1 ATS in its last 18 games including the postseason.

The Spurs really haven’t broken a sweat in the playoffs yet either. They have gotten their star-like performances from Tony Parker and Tim Duncan for sure. Parker is averaging 19.1 points, 7.1 assists, and 3.4 boards per game, while Duncan is good for 17.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. For the rest of the club though, no one has averaged more than 11.2 points per game or 26 minutes per game. That being said, there are seven other contributors that are good for at least 5.6 points per game, and it is that depth that is really causing all sorts of problems for other teams.

And then there are the Thunder, who have been looked at for the last few years as the up and coming team in the league. They took their first major stride two years ago when they took the Los Angeles Lakers to six games in the first round of the playoffs, and they took a second big time step last year when they made it to the Western Conference Finals before being taken out by the Dallas Mavericks.

This year though, matters have been a lot different for Oklahoma City in the playoffs. There have been no gifts in terms of what teams the Thunder have had to face. They took care of the Mavs, the defending NBA champs in a sweep, and then the finished off the Lakers in five games. Oklahoma City has had its share of blowouts. However, it has also figured out how to win the close games as well.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden are going to do the mass majority of the scoring in this series for sure, as the three combined to average nearly 70 points per game between them in the first nine games here in the playoffs. Durant is averaging almost 41 minutes per game as well, and he rarely takes a seat on the bench. The Thunder though, are getting great contributions from the likes of Serge Ibaka, Derek Fisher, and Kendrick Perkins, all of which are doing just enough on both sides of the court to keep this team rolling.

The Spurs and Thunder have never met before in the playoffs (since Oklahoma City moved from Seattle). This year in the regular season, there were three clashes. Oklahoma City took the first, 108-96 at home in January, but the Spurs won 107-96 at the AT&T Center in February and 114-105 in the Sooner State in March.

Game 1 of this best-of-seven series starts on Sunday, May 27^th, and the series will be played every other day, with a possible Game 7 taking place on Friday, June 8^th.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Series Preview

Betting Odds, NBA Betting

May 142012

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Series Preview

The last time that we saw the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder square off on the hardwood, Metta World Peace was busy throwing his elbow into the side of the head of James Harden. Fortunately for Harden, he is just fine and is back and ready for this series, and the suspension for World Peace is said and done with. Both teams will be flying high coming into this highly anticipated second round matchup, and our NBA preview for this series is one that you don’t want to miss out on!

The Thunder are legit for sure. They were able to take the defending NBA champs, the Dallas Mavericks out of the playoffs in just four games, and now, they have been resting on the sidelines for nine days waiting for this series to begin. It should be no surprise that Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant were really able to get the job done in the first round. Durant averaged 26.5 points per game, while Westbrook was at 22.2 points per game. Harden, as always, is one of the key men off of the bench at 18.2 points, 5.5 boards, and 4.2 assists per game.

Serge Ibaka was once again a force defensively, and he was good for 11.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks per game. He could have an even more important role in this series with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum on the other side of the court.

This is also going to be an important series for Derek Fisher, who spent years and years with the Lakers before essentially getting released at the trade deadline. Fisher averaged 8.2 points per game in the first round, and though he really wasn’t a bit time passer, he was able to get those shots to fall when he took them, and he could come back to bite his old team.

It was Kobe Bryant and the idiots essentially for the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, Andrew Bynum averaged 16.7 points and 12.3 boards per game, but he was one of the many that underachieved in the seven-game series against the Denver Nuggets. Gasol had 12.9 points and 9.1 boards per game. Ramon Sessions was probably the best player outside of Kobe Bryant in the first round. He averaged 11.7 points per game.

And then there was Kobe, who put up 29.1 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game. We would like to see him shoot the ball a bit better than the 44.8 percent that he managed in the first round, but hopefully he is fully over the flu bug that nearly cost him Game 6 and might have hampered him a bit in Game 7 as well.

This is the second time that these two teams have met in the playoffs. In the first ever playoff series, the Thunder made a name for themselves as the No. 8 seed in the West. After Games 1 and 2, they competed and won Games 3 and 4 against the then-No. 1 Lakers. LA did finish the series off in six games, but that was a real sign of things to come, showing that this Oklahoma City squad was up and coming.

This time around though, the Thunder are the team favored by a comfortable margin. They are -430 favorites on the NBA playoff betting series lines, while the Lakers are considered to be nearly 4 to 1 underdogs at 5Dimes Sportsbook.

NBA Championship Odds – Heat vs. Thunder Likely

Betting Odds, NBA Betting

Feb 022012

The Miami Heat will play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals this year. The NBA Championship odds say that’s a good possibility of happening.

The NBA all-star game is about three weeks away on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. In most NBA seasons it’s usually the all-star break that signals the good teams that it’s time to get going and you’ll often see the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders.

In the Eastern Conference it’s hard to imagine anyone other than the Miami Heat or Chicago Bulls representing the East in the NBA finals. The next level of teams seem to be the Atlanta Hawks who have beat the Bulls and Heat this year, the 76ers who also beat the Bulls and have a date with Miami tomorrow and the one surprise team is the Indiana Pacers.

Odds to win the Eastern Conference.

Eastern Conference - 2/2/2012 7:35 PM (EST)
Miami Heat	-140
Chicago Bulls	+255
Boston Celtics	+1500
Philadelphia 76ers	+1500
Orlando Magic	+1900
New York Knicks	+1900
Atlanta Hawks	+2300
Indiana Pacers	+3100
Milwaukee Bucks	+11000
New Jersey Nets	+11000
Cleveland Cavaliers	+15000
Toronto Raptors	+22500
Charlotte Bobcats	+30000
Detroit Pistons	+30000
Washington Wizards	+40000

The Western Conference could be a little more wide open as it has been in recent years. Oklahoma City looks like the top team in the West and the duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook is only going to get better. Other possible championship contenders are the Dallas Mavericks (defending champs), Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers and LA Lakers.

Odds to win Western Conference

Western Conference - 2/2/2012 7:35 PM (EST)
Oklahoma City Thunder	+180
Los Angeles Lakers	+370
Los Angeles Clippers	+700
Dallas Mavericks	+700
San Antonio Spurs	+1250
Portland Trailblazers	+1250
Denver Nuggets	+1900
Memphis Grizzlies	+1900
Houston Rockets	+4500
Utah Jazz	+6000
Minnesota Timberwolves	+9000
Phoenix Suns	+11000
Golden State Warriors	+11000
Sacramento Kings	+22500
New Orleans Hornets	+30000

5Dimes Sports Book already has odds posted on who will be the NBA finals matchup. The Heat vs. Thunder is favored at +390, followed by the Heat vs. Lakers at +726, Bulls vs. Thunder at +928 and both Heat vs. Clippers and Heat vs. Mavericks at +1340.

Odds to win NBA Finals

NBA Championship 2011-2012 - 2/2/2012 7:35 PM (EST)
Miami Heat	+175
Oklahoma City Thunder	+500
Chicago Bulls	+550
Los Angeles Lakers	+1000
Los Angeles Clippers	+1600
Dallas Mavericks	+1600
Boston Celtics	+3300
Portland Trailblazers	+3300
San Antonio Spurs	+3300
Philadelphia 76ers	+3300
Orlando Magic	+4000
New York Knicks	+4000
Memphis Grizzlies	+4000
Denver Nuggets	+4000
Atlanta Hawks	+5000
Indiana Pacers	+6600
Houston Rockets	+10000
Utah Jazz	+15000
Milwaukee Bucks	+25000
New Jersey Nets	+25000
Golden State Warriors	+25000
Phoenix Suns	+25000
Minnesota Timberwolves	+25000
Cleveland Cavaliers	+35000
Toronto Raptors	+50000
Sacramento Kings	+50000
Detroit Pistons	+75000
New Orleans Hornets	+75000
Charlotte Bobcats	+75000
Washington Wizards	+100000

Do you think we will see a Miami Heat vs. Oklahoma City Thunder finals? The NBA Championship odds are betting on it!

Shorter Schedule does affect NBA Betting

NBA Betting

Jan 132012

After five months of hearing about nothing but lockouts, salary caps and mediation, sports betting fans awoke Christmas morning to find that Santa had left the NBA and more importantly, NBA betting under their trees. But, like a toy that carries the “some assembly required” warning, these gifts also force recipients to do a little work before they can enjoy their benefits.

NBA betting practitioners, at least those who hope to make a profit during this hardwood season, will have to assess what effect playing a 66-game compacted campaign will have on individual teams. Trying to stay a sawbuck ahead of their wagering masses, sportsbooks already have made that evaluation, adjusting future book odds to reflect how playing three games in four nights and as many as five contests in a week will impact both on-the-court and at-the-windows performance.

Let’s look at some of the leading contenders and more interesting teams. (Opening and current future book odds in parentheses):

Miami Heat (5/2, 9/4): The Heat has a relatively young core in LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh that should be able to withstand the rigors of a compacted schedule, which explains why sportsbooks have lowered the price on Miami winning an NBA Championship this season. On a daily basis, you’re almost always going to have to lay points with the Heat, a reality which led to just a 51-50-2 mark against the spread (ATS) last season.

Los Angeles Lakers (6/1, 13/2): Not only did the Lakers fail to land Chris Paul but they also lost NBA Sixth Man of the Year Lamar Odom to Dallas, which, coupled with a weak bench could wear on the perennial contenders come next spring. No wonder sportsbooks raised the odds on a Lakers title. LA was only 41-51 ATS last season.

Chicago Bulls (7/1, 11/2): Adding 3-point menace Richard Hamilton to a deep and energetic cast that includes league MVP Derrick Rose has convinced operators of sportsbooks that if the Heat succumb to the pressure, the Bulls may wind up hoisting championship hardware in June. With a pointspread record of 56-41-1, Chicago was kind to NBA betting practitioners a season ago and could cover a lot of games going away this season, as well.

Oklahoma City Thunder (15/2, 13/2): Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook lead a contingent of young legs that should just be getting their second winds when many other teams are panting for breath in March and April. The Thunder certainly is a contender.

Dallas Mavericks (9/1, 11/1): Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and even Dirk Nowitzki are investigating AARP membership and the rest of the league figures to be gunning for the defending champions, reasons why enthusiasm for a repeat has waned among sportsbooks. Certainly, the Mavs looked old and tired in their Christmas day blowout to the Heat. Dallas was 60-40-2 ATS last season but harder times—for the team and for their betting followers—appear on the horizon.

Boston Celtics (12/1, 16/1): The Celtics are one of the few teams that have actually complained about the condensed schedule, a fact not lost on those who make odds. Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O’Neal, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen all have seen better (and certainly younger) days. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Boston wore down by next spring.

New York Knicks (22/1, 16/1): The acquisition of C Tyson Chandler (from Dallas) secures a front line of Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony that may be the best in the east. If Baron Davis and/or Mike Bibby can contribute in the backcourt, the Knicks could win the Atlantic Division. Of course, at 48-36-2 ATS, New York was a winner for bettors last season.

San Antonio Spurs (20/1, 40/1): The Spurs were exposed as old and undersized in the playoffs so there’s little confidence that playing more games in a shorter period of time will be anything but detrimental to San Antonio’s chances for a turnaround. Tim Duncan is near the end of his career.

Los Angeles Clippers (50/1, 20/1): After managing just one winning season in the last 19 years, the Clippers are being mentioned as legitimate final contenders, which would mean, they would tale LA from the Lakers. The pairing of Chris Paul with Blake Griffin is expected to reap immediate dividends and the Clippers picked up some veteran leadership in Chauncey Billups and Caron Butler, as well. Be afraid, be very afraid.

In addition to playing more games in fewer days, the compact schedule will impact NBA betting in another way: travel. Savvy NBA betting pros have known for a long time that it’s not so much the away court as the travel involved in getting to that court that makes it difficult to win on the road. That factor will be exasperated this season. NBA betting fans should be looking to bet against teams crossing time zones and playing their third game in four nights.

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