{"id":20603,"date":"2011-12-28T12:37:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T17:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20603"},"modified":"2011-12-28T12:37:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T17:37:06","slug":"nba-picks-oklahoma-city-thunder-vs-memphis-grizzlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-picks-oklahoma-city-thunder-vs-memphis-grizzlies-20603\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Picks: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Memphis Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies
\nWednesday, 12\/28\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBA TV
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 195
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 193.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Memphis Grizzlies are a dangerous home underdog Wednesday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oklahoma City has opened up the 2011-12 season with a pair of victories that includes a 104-100 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves as five-point road favorites.\u00a0 The Thunder have gone \u2018under\u2019 the posted total in both of their contests thus far.\u00a0 All eyes will be on star forward Kevin Durant, who is considered to be the best scorer in the league.\u00a0 \u201cDurant is a special player, one of the best players in the NBA,\u201d commented Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph.\u00a0 Oklahoma City is 8-5 ATS as a road favorite of three points or less the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Thunder have started a season 2-0 for the third consecutive year, as they get ready to face a revenge-minded Memphis Grizzlies team that they knocked out of the playoffs a year ago.\u00a0 Oklahoma City\u2019s dynamic duo of Durant and point guard Russell Westbrook combined to score 49.6 points per game last season, finishing second only to Miami\u2019s combination of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.\u00a0 Taking advantage of opportunities from the free throw line is one of the team\u2019s greatest strengths, shooting a league-best 82.3 percent a year ago.<\/p>\n

Memphis was handed a 95-82 loss in its season opener at San Antonio, as the team dropped to 0-11 in such contests since moving to the city.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t play very well,\u201d commented Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins.\u00a0 \u201cWe turned the ball over 24 times and we didn\u2019t guard.\u201d\u00a0 Star forward Zach Randolph will look to bounce back from a mediocre performance, scoring just 10 points and grabbing six rebounds in the opener.\u00a0 He finished the 2010-11 campaign by averaging 20.1 points and 12.2 boards.\u00a0 Memphis is 6-7 ATS as a home underdog of three points or less the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies have captured five of their last six home games in this particular series, as the only loss came in triple overtime.\u00a0 Memphis was certainly happy to see Rudy Gay back on the court, as he seems fully recovered from last year\u2019s shoulder surgery.\u00a0 He managed to score 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds against the Spurs.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m hungrier than ever,\u201d Gay stated after the game.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m just trying to be athletic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Grizzlies due to their 5-1-1 ATS mark as a home underdog, while the Thunder are 1-4 ATS in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday, 12\/28\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBA TV Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Oklahoma City -1.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 195 Current Total:\u00a0 193.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Oklahoma City has opened up the 2011-12 season with a pair of victories that includes a 104-100 win over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[1193,3354,18,399,2068,1319],"class_list":["post-20603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-kevin-durant","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-rudy-gay","tag-zach-randolph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20603","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=20603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20604,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20603\/revisions\/20604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}