I lost the MAX play that I released. The first time I’ve ever given one out publicly, and I fall flat on my face. I suppose the consolation is that if you followed me all week last week and played that, you also hit eight straight bets. The good and bad of sports betting, I suppose. Tonight, we get Game 4 between the Thunder and Lakers in what has been a disappointing second round of the NBA Playoffs.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are going to win the NBA Championship, barring any sort of injury. It likely will be them over the Knicks in five or six games. The Thunder are just too deep of a team. They play defense, they have good shooting, they have a go-to scorer, and they’ve already won a championship, so they know what it takes. With so much talent, why does everyone hate the Thunder so much?
Oklahoma City has a narrative problem. People don’t watch the NBA, or sports in general, the same way they used to. Most people make judgments on highlights and random tweets that people put out. The narrative around the Thunder is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t good; he just looks for fouls. It is also that the Thunder get every call from the refs. Isolated plays make it easy to make broad statements, but I watch all the games I can. The Thunder are a great team, and they are aggressive. Sometimes that’s rewarded because they are actually trying on defense as opposed to what most teams do.
The Los Angeles Lakers have no real shot of winning the series, and they probably knew that coming in. Their only hope was to get the referees on their side. Are there legitimate complaints about some calls? Of course. However, the Lakers are complainers to begin with and have always gotten a favorable whistle. They have shot more free throws than their opponent in two of the three games in this series.
FLOPPING IS RUINING THE NBA AND LEBRON SHOULD TAKE SOME BLAME FOR THAT
If there was a gripe to be made, it would need to be something like “We’ve driven the ball more than the Thunder and are getting fewer free throws.” The Lakers have driven the ball 120 times this series. The Thunder have 148 drives. There have been questionable calls made in favor of the Thunder, but there are some in favor of the Lakers as well.
What has been lost in all of this is just how great the Thunder are playing. They are 7-0 in the playoffs and have won every game by nine or more points. Their average margin of victory in this series has been 26 points. In the playoffs overall, the average has been 21 points. The spread in this game is just -10.5 for the Thunder.
I think the Lakers have given up. They are spending too much time complaining about the referees because they have no other chance to beat the Thunder. Give me Oklahoma City -10.5. I also like Ajay Mitchell over 16.5 points. He has been phenomenal this series, averaging 20.7 points per game and never scoring fewer than 18 in a game. Part of the reason the Thunder are so good is that they hit on picks like Mitchell, a second-round pick.
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