{"id":12450,"date":"2011-01-13T12:20:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12450"},"modified":"2011-01-13T12:20:43","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:20:43","slug":"nba-on-espn-orlando-magic-at-oklahoma-city-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-on-espn-orlando-magic-at-oklahoma-city-thunder-12450\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA on ESPN: Orlando Magic at Oklahoma City Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic AT Oklahoma City Thunder
\nJanuary 13th, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Orlando -1
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Orlando -1
\nOpening Total: 205
\nCurrent Total: 204
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -113 \/ OKC +103
\nCurrent Moneyline: Orlando -115 \/ OKC -105<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kevin
Kevin Durant is averaging 34 points per game in his last 5 home games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orlando’s winning streak finally came to an end in the raucous arena of the New Orleans Hornets.\u00a0 It took overtime for the Hornets to dispose of the pesky Magic, who came back from a 7 point defecit in the last 1:20 of the game to force the extra period.\u00a0 Dwight Howard had a 29 point 20 rebound game, getting the best of draft mate Emeka Okafor once again.\u00a0 Orlando failed to set their franchise mark for the longest win streak ever, but has still win 10 of their last 11 and they have owned the Thunder in recent times, having won 9 of the last 10 against them.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City has won three straight, but gave up 112 points to the Rockets last game, and Orlando\u00a0 is an even more potent offensive team, so it has Kevin Durant concerned.\u00a0 He commented, \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to be more locked in and focused, and worry about that end more than the offensive end.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll be all right.\u201d\u00a0 Durant has been at fire at home, where he has averaged 34.4 points per game over the last five home games.\u00a0 He’ll need a big night to offset the Magic’s new look potent attack, and NBA oddsmakers have set the total relatively high at an opening total of 205, which has since shifted down to 204.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Orlando is 9-1 SU in their last 10 games and the total has gone UNDER In 7 of their last 9 against the Thunder.\u00a0 They are 8-1 SU in their last 9 games against OKC and 5-11 SU in their last 16 road games in OKC.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 6 of their last 8 games on the road in Oklahoma City, as well.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City is 5-2 SU in their last 7 games and the total has gone OVER IN 5 of their last 6 games at home.\u00a0 They are 9-2 SU in their last 11 at home and they are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 against the Magic.\u00a0 The total has also gone UNDER In 7 of their last 9 games against the Magic.\u00a0 They are 1-8 SU in their last 9 against the Orlando Magic.
\n
\nKey Matchups:<\/p>\n

Hedo Turkoglu vs. Kevin Durant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hedo is a better defender than people give him credit for, but to cover someone of Durant’s caliber it takes more than being an “above average” defender.\u00a0 Hedo at 6’10” and lanky has the frame to challenge Durant’s jumpshots…if he can stay in front of him.\u00a0 Durant elevates over most smaller small forwards for a lot of mid range jumpers, but whether he will be able to exploit that against Hedo is rather dubious.\u00a0 He should have a big game, but it may require more rebounding and more threes than he ordinarily puts in.\u00a0 Turkoglu will keep Durant engaged on defense as Orlando’s primary playmaker.\u00a0 He recently had a career high 17 assists and is very good in the 3-5 pick and roll with Howard.\u00a0 Durant may find himself getting switched onto Howard in the pick and roll which could cause him to pick up some fouls, which would be greatly to Orlando’s advantage.\u00a0 It’s not easy to get Durant into foul trouble because he is too smart, but if the Magic could force him into a couple early ones and get him sidelined, they could run away with the game early.
\n
\nJameer Nelson & Gilbert Arenas vs Russell Westbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one knew Westbrook was going to be this good.\u00a0 He had a decent enough rookie year, but this year has exploded onto the scene as one of the best point guards in the league.\u00a0 He is bigger and stronger than Nelson, and probably a little quicker too, so Nelson is really going to have his hands full with Westbrook.\u00a0 Bringing in Arenas won’t help much because while Arenas has the size, he lacks the speed that Jameer Nelson has, so either way they are going to be deficient on defense against Westbrook.\u00a0 If Westbrook can get his mid range game going and continue to get to the basket (taking it at Dwight to get him into foul trouble), the Magic will be in serious trouble tonight.<\/p>\n

This promises to be a great game, which is why ESPN picked it up for a telecast.\u00a0 The Magic have had a lot of success against the Thunder recently, but Oklahoma City is always tough to beat at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic AT Oklahoma City Thunder January 13th, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Orlando -1 Current Line:\u00a0 Orlando -1 Opening Total: 205 Current Total: 204 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -113 \/ OKC +103 Current Moneyline: Orlando -115 \/ OKC -105 Orlando’s winning streak finally came to an end in the raucous arena of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":5491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[910,1193,399,659,3298],"class_list":["post-12450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-hedo-turkoglu","tag-kevin-durant","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-orlando-magic","tag-russell-westbrook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450","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=12450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12452,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450\/revisions\/12452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}