The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Miami Heat on Tuesday, losing 112-111.
The worst part? Miami set an NBA record by making 40-of-40 shots from the free-throw line in the game. Just brutal.
The Thunder still covered the spread as road underdogs, the 11th time they’ve done that in 16 games this season, building on their best record ATS in the NBA as a road underdog (min. 3 games).
Things will get a little tough on Thursday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, who have moved into the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference by winning seven of their last 10 games.
Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey are going to make things tough on this young OKC team, but the Thunder have shown time and time again this season that they can at least compete with teams in the upper half of the NBA.
Here are the latest odds and a pick for the Thunder-Sixers matchup:
Thunder vs. Sixers odds, spread and total
Thunder vs. Sixers prediction and pick
The Sixers dominated back-to-back games against the Detroit Pistons, but I think the oddsmakers aren’t giving the Thunder the respect they deserve in this spot.
Detroit is a far worse team than OKC, yet the Sixers are still laying double-digits tonight.
OKC ranks 18th in the NBA in net rating (Detroit is 29th) and it has one of the best scorers in the game in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Thunder are elite against the spread as underdogs this season, and as road dogs their against the spread plus/minus is an impressive +3.0.
Yes, the Sixers have way more weapons on offense and are 11-7-1 as home favorites, but I think oddsmakers are putting too much stock into the first matchup between these teams this season.
Philly won by 19 at home, but SGA had arguably his worst game of the season, scoring just 14 points.
I’m concerned with OKC’s interior defense with key bigs such as Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aleksej Pokusevski out, but let’s be honest, neither play was slowing down Joel Embiid anyway.
I will gladly take the 10.5 points with OKC tonight since it has been a covering machine in this spot.
Find Peter Dewey’s full betting record here.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.