The Dallas Mavericks are at the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday for Game 2 of the best of 7 series. This is the second round of the NBA postseason. The winner of this series will move to the Western Conference Finals and take on either Minnesota or Denver.
Dallas went 50-32 in the regular season, and finished fifth in the West. The Mavericks eliminated the Phoenix Suns in the first round by winning in six games. The Mavericks are looking to bounce back following their 22 point Game 1 loss.
For Oklahoma City, they have won 10 straight games. The Thunder won their final five games of the regular season, and have won five in a row in the postseason. Oklahoma City grabbed the top seed by going 57-25 in the regular season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are listed at -5.5 at home. The Thunder and Mavericks have a total of 218.5.
Bounce Back Needed for Dallas
The Mavericks trailed by 9 at halftime, and 10 after three. Instead of making a fourth quarter run, the Mavericks scored just 16 points and lost by 22. Dallas saw five guys score double digits in the game. Kyrie Irving was the leading scorer with 20 points, while Luka Doncic was held to 19 points. Luka was 6 for 19 from the field.
Dallas scored 117.9 points per game in the regular season. Dallas was the third best three point shooting team, with just shy of 15 per game. In the loss on Tuesday, the Mavericks made 12 of 25. Dallas has lost three postseason games so far, and in those games, they are allowing 114 points per game. In the four wins, they are allowing less than 96 per game.
There is no doubt the offense for Dallas runs through Doncic and Irving. In the Game 6 win over the Clippers, those two combined for 58 points. They also added 13 rebounds and 17 assists in the win. The Mavericks also could use more bench production as both Tim Hardaway and Dereck Lively both scored just 2 points.
Red Hot Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder are playing some great basketball right now. In the Tuesday win, they saw five guys score double digits in the game. The leader has been Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The guard scored 29 points, dishing out 9 assists and recording 9 rebounds. Next was Chet Holmgren, with 19 points.
Gilgeous-Alexander is going to be one of the contenders to win the Most Valuable Player award this season. The guard played 75 games and scored 30.1 points per game. Holmgren is in his rookie season, and played in every game for the Thunder this season. He finished with 16.5 points per game.
The Thunder are one of the top offensive teams in the league. They averaged 120.1 points per game during the regular season. Since the postseason got underway, the Thunder have been elite on the defensive side. Oklahoma City has yet to allow a team to score 100 on them.
Thunder Top Mavericks at Home
The Oklahoma City Thunder are on fire right now. There is a slim margin for beating them right now, and teams are not finding that right now. At home, we like the Thunder to continue playing well, and go up 2-0 in this series.
When we go to make our betting pick for this game, we are going to take the Oklahoma City Thunder -5.5 over the Dallas Mavericks. Enjoy the game and best of luck with all your National Basketball Association betting!
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