L.A. Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder Betting Odds


Opening Betting Lines: Lakers +3.5 / Thunder -3.5 O/U 191.5

Time: 9:30 PM EST Thursday April 22, 2010 on TNT

Lakers lead best of 7 series 2-0.

Tonight in the 3rd game of a Western Conference 1st round playoff series the Oklahoma City Thunder host the defending champion L.A. Lakers. Thunder head coach Scott Brooks was recently named NBA Coach of the Year, but he has his work cut out for him to get back in this series.

In Game 2 the Thunder had the lead at halftime, but the Lakers came back and won by 3 points behind the play of superstar Kobe Bryant. The Thunder did not take advantage of the fact that the Lakers only shot 37.5% from the field.

This season the Thunder are 27-14 at home and the Lakers are 23-18 on the road.

The Lakers won Game 2 95-92 on Tuesday night.

The last time the Lakers played in Oklahoma City the Thunder smoked them 91-75.

Kevin Durant had a big scoring Game 2 with 32 points and he did grab 8 boards, but he also committed 8 turnovers and that really hurt the Thunder.

Jeff Green is one of the 3 main scorers for the Thunder along with Durant and PG Russell Westbrook and in Game 2 he did score 12 points, but was only 2/11 from the floor.

Pau Gasol and Kobe combined to score 64 points on 20/42 shooting, but the other 3 starters only scored 16 points and did not shoot well combining 7/29 shooting. Kobe will get his points, but the Thunder need to keep Gasol from having a big scoring game. It will take some pressure off Kobe and Pau if somebody else for L.A. can step up on offense.

In Game 2 the Thunder were out-rebounded by 12 boards (49-37) and the Thunder need to hit the boards tonight and not allow the Lakers to dominate the boards. This is especially the case on the offense boards, as they Lakers had 19 offensive rebounds in Game 2.

The Lakers have to shoot the rock from the outside and hit their open J's, as the Lakers have a much better frontcourt and Oklahoma City will not get many points in the paint.

Betting Trends

L.A. is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games, 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games as a road underdog of 0.5-4.5, and has an Under record of 7-2 in their last 9 games.

Oklahoma City is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 home games against teams with a winning road record, 12-3 ATS in their last 15 games as a favorite of 0.5-4.5, and has an Over record of 9-4-1 in their last 14 games as a favorite.

In the last 5 games between these 2 teams in Oklahoma City the total has gone Under 4 times.

Our Selection : The Lakers were an unimpressive 23-18 on the road in the regular season and losers of 3 of their last 4 road tilts. The Thunder pasted the Lakers 91-75 in their last visit. Take the Thunder +3.5 at Bodog.


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NBA Handicapping

Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat Odds 6-12
The Mavs are up 3-2 in this series heading to South Beach and for the Heat to force Game 7 they will have to play better in the 4th quarter, especially LeBron James. 5Dimes has the hometown Heat as 5-point favorites in Game 6 with a total of 187.

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