The Oklahoma City Thunder will return home after a difficult six city road trip on Thursday to host the Dallas Mavericks. Not only will returning to home cooking be good for the Thunder, but Russell Westbrook and company will also enjoy a nice should-win game in what is ultimately a home reprieve before getting back on the road. The Mavs are having a tough time of it this season, though they’ve shown fans some positive signs of late.
This war on the floor will go down Thursday, January 26, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The game will be televised live on TNT.
We'll have NBA odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NBA Thursday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Thunders’ win over the Jazz on Monday night has helped overshadow a struggle of a road trip. Of course, Utah isn’t an easy place to play, but compared to their contest against Golden State, it was a much more palatable matchup.
The win—both SU and ATS—helps, but the team is still just 2-3 SU and ATS during their current road trip, but this is a team that’s 13-7-1 ATS at home where they’ll be playing on Thursday night.
The Mavericks, on the other hand, come into the game playing pretty well. They just destroyed the Lakers on Sunday night by 49-points thanks to their strong defense, but the offense played well, too, scoring 122 points. It was the second straight game they scored at least 100, a feat the team hadn’t accomplished since December.
Given the great defense and generally poor offense, it’s no wonder the under has paid out often in Mavericks games, going 7-2 in Dallas’s last nine. Of course, bettors taking a chance on Dallas ATS have been rewarded of late, too as the Mavs are 5-1 ATS in their last six games.
Key Player
While Russell Westbrook continues to put up unbelievable numbers, making voters look silly for not putting him as an All-Star starter, he’s not the key to this game. He will get his triple-double stats and he will lead the team—and the game—in scoring, rebounding and assists all at the same time.
As absolutely insane as that is, it’s become standard operating procedure for the Thunder. Instead, the key player in this game will be Victor Oladipo.
Westbrook isn’t just a guard. He’s all over the court working miracles, but his biggest assistant in this offense is Victor Oladipo. Oladipo scored 20 in the Thunders’ game against Golden State and followed up with 18 against Utah. In that game the team also had the biggest differential with Oladipo on the court, outscoring Utah by 18.
Look-ahead Situation
It’s been a really though run for the Thunder who will have played six straight road games heading into this matchup with the Mavs and will hit the road immediately after for a pair of games in Cleveland and San Antonio.
While any long road trip is hard, this one has been particularly difficult with games against the likes of Golden State, Utah and the L.A. Clippers.
The Thunder went just 1-3 ATS in their first four games of the road trip, posting the same record SU. They’ll face Dallas on a back-to-back, following a game in the Big Easy against New Orleans the day before.
Given the struggles of the Mavericks this year and their impressive 15-6 record at home, it’ll be easy for Oklahoma City to overlook Dallas. This is the sort of matchup that could lead to a big upset, at least ATS. The one saving grace, however, is Dallas will also be playing on a back-to-back after hosting the Knicks on Wednesday.
Interestingly, Dallas and Oklahoma City boast identical 3-5 ATS marks without a day’s rest. Straight up, however, the story is only slightly different with the Thunder at 2-6 and the Mavericks winless at 0-8.
Free NBA ATS Picks
Dallas’s win over Los Angeles should put bettors on notice; not because they won, but because of how much they won by.
The Mavericks will try to build off the confidence and momentum of that game and reproduce the strong defensive performance against the Thunder. That, however, won’t work.
Russell Westbrook will score regardless of the opposition. He’ll put up his numbers, meanwhile Oladipo, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams form a core of not inconsequential role players around him.
The Thunder just beat a better defensive team with a much better offense on the road. They should have no troubles against a 15-29 team at home, even if their defense is solid.
NBA Odds: Thunder 107, Mavericks 95
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