{"id":11004,"date":"2010-11-26T15:55:46","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T20:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11004"},"modified":"2010-11-26T15:55:46","modified_gmt":"2010-11-26T20:55:46","slug":"free-nba-picks-oklahoma-city-thunder-at-indiana-pacers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nba-picks-oklahoma-city-thunder-at-indiana-pacers-11004\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NBA Picks: Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Westbrook has emerged as one of the top point guards in the league, but will have a challenge with Darren Collison tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder AT Indiana Pacers
\nTuesday, 11\/26\/10 8:05 EST
\nCurrent Betting line:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1.5
\nCurrent Total: 206<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Thunder come into this game 10-5, having lost their last game to Dallas by 8 points.\u00a0 The Pacers meanwhile have been a pleasant surprise to Pacer fans, going 7-6 and are currently riding a two game winning streak.\u00a0 They are a .500 team at home so far, going 4-4 thus far.\u00a0 The Thunder sport a 4-2 road record going into tonight’s game.<\/p>\n

Somehow, despite having a 10-5 record, Oklahoma City has a negative point differential, averaging being outscored 102.8 to 102.5.\u00a0 Indiana has a positive point differential of 95.5 to 98.8.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 12 of Oklahoma City’s past 15 games.\u00a0 Both teams combine to average 210.6 compared to the total line of 206, so there is a good chance that the total goes over again tonight.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in Oklahoma City’s last five games against the Pacers, too.\u00a0 However, counteracting this statistic is the fact that the total has gone UNDER in all five of Indiana’s last five games.\u00a0 Again, however, counteracting this is the fact that the total has gone OVER in the last 5 games in Indiana vs the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Some of the key matchups to watch tonight:
\n
\nDarren Collison (IND) vs. Russell Westbrook (OKC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collison has been a relative disappointment this year, in terms of how high the bar was set after his performance in New Orleans last year with Chris Paul out, a period in which Collison averaged 19 ppg and 9 apg.\u00a0 Thus far in the 2010-2011 season, he is only averaging 14.3 ppg and 4.3 apg.\u00a0 Perhaps most perplexing of all is the fact he has been losing minutes to veteran T.J. Ford, who figures NOT to be a part of Indiana’s future plans.\u00a0 Westbrook, conversely, is having a career year, averaging 6 more ppg than last year, and clocking in at 22.5 ppg to go along with 8.3 apg, making him clearly one of the top point guards in the game.\u00a0 However, if anyone has the speed to keep up with Westbrook, it is Collison.\u00a0 This matchup will go a long ways towards determining the outcome of this game.
\n
\nDanny Granger (IND) vs. Kevin Durant (OKC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Granger is one of the more underrated players in the game, despite having made his first all star team last year.\u00a0 He is a great shooter (43.4% from three on 6.4 attempts from behind the arc per game) and a high volume scorer.\u00a0 The same can be said about Durant, of course, who will give Granger fits, but Granger is a good defender and might be able to keep Durant from having a big night.\u00a0 He will make Durant work on the defensive end, meaning he will have less energy to do his thing on offense.\u00a0 Durant’s field goal percentage is down so far this year, and he is shooting very poorly from three (29%).\u00a0 Look for Durant to try to get to the hole more against Granger since he has a speed advantage and Granger has the length to challenge his jumper.<\/p>\n

These two matchups will determine the outcome of the game.\u00a0 While Hibbert of the Pacers promises to have a big night against Nenad Krstic, it is Westbrook and Durant that will likely spell either victory or defeat for the Thunder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder AT Indiana Pacers Tuesday, 11\/26\/10 8:05 EST Current Betting line:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1.5 Current Total: 206 The Thunder come into this game 10-5, having lost their last game to Dallas by 8 points.\u00a0 The Pacers meanwhile have been a pleasant surprise to Pacer fans, going 7-6 and are currently riding a two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[565,399],"class_list":["post-11004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11005,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions\/11005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}