{"id":13707,"date":"2011-02-27T09:23:32","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T14:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13707"},"modified":"2011-02-27T09:23:32","modified_gmt":"2011-02-27T14:23:32","slug":"los-angeles-lakers-at-oklahoma-city-thunder-pro-basketball-expert-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/los-angeles-lakers-at-oklahoma-city-thunder-pro-basketball-expert-picks-predictions-13707\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder Pro Basketball Expert Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder
\nSunday, 2\/27\/11, 2:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ABC
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pick
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -1
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 201
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 201<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Los Angeles has bounced back nicely after the All-Star break and will be looking for a fourth straight win when facing Oklahoma City Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 The Lakers have managed to score at least 104 points in each of those games, which is a huge improvement from the 87.7 points they averaged during its three-game losing streak heading into the break.\u00a0 The team is coming off an impressive 108-95 win over the Clippers, as forward Pau Gasol outplayed rookie sensation Blake Griffin.\u00a0 Los Angeles comes in with a 41-19 overall record, including a 20-11 mark on the road.\u00a0 The squad is 16-15 ATS on the road this season and currently a slight road favorite on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Lakers currently lead their season series with the Thunder 1-0 after taking last season\u2019s regular season series 3-1.\u00a0 Los Angeles has won five consecutive seasons series from Oklahoma City, while also advancing past them in the first round of the 2010 NBA playoffs.\u00a0 On the road in this particular series, the club has won eight of the last 10 meetings, while posting a 27-12 mark under the direction of Phil Jackson.\u00a0 All-Star guard Kobe Bryant has also enjoyed great success against today\u2019s opponent by averaging 25.0 points per game.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City is looking to avoid a third-straight loss after coming in dropping two consecutive games against the likes of San Antonio and Orlando.\u00a0 The Thunder pulled the trigger on a major trade a few days ago and could have those pieces available in Sunday\u2019s contest.\u00a0 \u201cI think we got more physical, as a whole now, and bigger that we were previously,\u201d said general manager Sam Presti on acquiring Boston\u2019s Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed.\u00a0 \u201cWe also maintained our versatility on the roster.\u201d\u00a0 Robinson and Mohammed will likely be available immediately, while Perkins is battling a sprained left knee.\u00a0 Oklahoma City is 17-7 ATS this season when revenging a loss versus an opponent.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are a solid 20-8 at home this season and bring in a 12-6 mark in those games against the Western Conference.\u00a0 Oklahoma City has shown great resolve in bouncing back from defeat this season and has posted a 16-4 record in games played immediately following a loss.\u00a0 The team\u2019s .800 winning percentage in those games ranks second in the NBA behind only the San Antonio Spurs.\u00a0 After starting the season a perfect 7-0 on national television, Oklahoma city has lost five consecutive contests in front of a national audience.\u00a0 In order to break that streak, the combination of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will need to continue scoring 50.6 points per game combined.\u00a0 They trail only Miami\u2019s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in that particular category.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Thunder due to their 20-9 ATS mark as a home underdog, while the Lakers are 1-4 ATS on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday, 2\/27\/11, 2:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ABC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pick Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -1 Opening Total:\u00a0 201 Current Total:\u00a0 201 Los Angeles has bounced back nicely after the All-Star break and will be looking for a fourth straight win when facing Oklahoma City Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[1193,67,68,399,3693],"class_list":["post-13707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13709,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707\/revisions\/13709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}