NBA Basketball
2021-10-26 - Golden State Warriors at Oklahoma City Thunder
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball
Tuesday 26th October 2021 - Scheduled 8pm
1am (British Time)
Preview
It is a long NBA season and worrying too much about results in October or believing those to indicate how far a team can go in June would be foolish. The Golden State Warriors (3-0) will be feeling very good about their perfect start and they can build on that over the weeks and months ahead, but Steve Kerr will be most happy to see the roster looking healthy after injuries have decimated their chances of winning more NBA Championships over the last couple of years.
While they are a work in progress and there is a feeling that the chemistry will return as the season progresses, things are a lot different for their hosts. There has been plenty of indications from the Oklahoma City Thunder (0-3) brain trust that this is going to be a transitional season with a young roster getting to learn on the job, but that means they are not likely to reach the 22 wins they achieved last season, even with the additional games to be played.
The Thunder have been largely uncompetitive in their defeats too and this is going to be a tough season. They are struggling at both ends of the court as young players will make mistakes and I do think the layers are still getting used to what kind of spreads they should set for the Thunder in games.
They have not only lost all three games, but the Oklahoma City Thunder have failed to cover in any of those defeats too and all of those losses have come by double digits. The head to head with the Golden State Warriors in recent seasons is concerning and last season the Thunder were blown out in all three meetings and that despite having a more experienced roster and the Warriors being banged up.
Steph Curry has admitted there is room for improvement in his personal performances for the Warriors in the early part of the season, but he is playing plenty good enough too. The standards Curry has set means he wants more from himself, but he has helped Golden State look really good Offensively and I do think they can take the game away from the Thunder.
We have become used to seeing better Defensive performances from the Warriors, but they can get back on track against an inconsistent Oklahoma City Offense. The Thunder have only been hitting at 40% from the field in the early season games and I am simply not sure they can keep up with what Golden State can produce.
Oklahoma City have to avoid being distracted by the home game against the Los Angeles Lakers which is coming up on Wednesday too. A young team might be excited about playing Steph Curry and the Warriors, but LeBron James potentially lining up against them is a big distraction for players that may have idolised him.
The Warriors are 5-2 against the spread in the last seven games where they have been set as the road favourite. It has been a poor run for the Thunder for some time and they have been very uncompetitive on the spread too so I think the road team can be backed to have too much scoring for the Thunder here.
Prediction
Lay the points with the road favourite.