Oklahoma City Thunder at Orlando Magic Betting Odds


Opening Betting Lines: Thunder +7 / Magic -7 O/U 205

Time: 8 PM EST Friday February 25, 2011 on ESPN

The Thunder lost to one championship contender in the Spurs in their last game and now they face another one in the Magic on Friday night in a non-conference match up. This season the Magic are 21-9 at home and the Thunder are a decent road team at 16-12.

Both teams played their last games on Wednesday night and while it is no shock that the Thunder lost to the Spurs in San Antonio 109-105 it is a shock that the Magic lost at home Sacramento Kings 111-105.

The Thunder have been a better betting team on the season going 29-27 ATS while Orlando is at 26-31-1.

The Thunder have a great offense, but they have big issues on defense only ranking 20th in the league in opponents’ points allowed. Their interior defense is an issue with them, which is not good since they will be facing Dwight Howard (23 ppg 13.9 rpg). Howard had a big night in the loss to the Kings with 31 points and 17 boards.

Oklahoma City pulled off a last-second deal to help with their inside D trading for Boston C Kendrick Perkins as well as G Nate Robinson. The Thunder had to give up 3rd leading scorer Jeff Green and C Nenad Krstic.

The Magic are one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league, but they struggled from deep in the loss to Sacramento only connecting on 28.6% of their 3-pointers. The loss to the Kings showed if the Magic do not shoot well from deep they will likely lose. Hedo Turkoglu was 4/7 from downtown, but Jason Richardson, Jameer Nelson, Gilbert Arenas, J.J. Redick, and Ryan Anderson were only 4/21 from behind the 3-pt line. The Thunder have to play good D on these guys and not give them open looks from deep.

Orlando’s defense will be tested in this game against a Thunder team that ranks 5th in the league in scoring. Kevin Durant (28.8 ppg) and Russell Westbrook (22.1 ppg) combined for 55 points in the loss to the Spurs. These two are the big guns for Oklahoma City and without the recently departed Green James Harden (10.6 ppg) will be counted on to chip in on offense.

Westbrook is a lighting quick PG and he will give the Magic perimeter defense trouble in this game. The Magic cannot allow him to penetrate in the lane and score and dish out.

The Magic rank 5th in the league in rebounds per game and the Thunder cannot let them dominate the boards, especially on the offensive end of the court.

Betting Trends

Oklahoma City is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS win, 3-7 ATS in their last 10 after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game, and has an Over record of 5-1 in Their last 6 games against teams with a winning percentage above 60%.

Orlando is 1-6-1 ATS in their last 8 games against team with a winning S.U. record and has an Under record of 4-1 in their last 5 home games.

Our Selection : Take Under 205 points at Bodog.


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