NBA Basketball
2026-02-25 - Oklahoma City Thunder at Detroit Pistons
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball
Wednesday 25th February 2026 - Scheduled 7:30pm
12:30pm (British Time)
Preview
The leaders of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference meet in a regular season game on Wednesday in the NBA, although both are already focusing on how they are going to be coming together when the Playoffs roll around. This may feel like an opportunity to lay down a marker ahead of any potential NBA Finals meeting, but the likelihood is that both teams will be in a very different mindset if they have been able to work through to those June dates.
The Detroit Pistons (42-14) are 4.5 games clear of the Boston Celtics at the top of the Eastern Conference, but they are looking to bounce back from a disappointing home defeat to the San Antonio Spurs.
No one was that happy with the performance, but the Pistons have been excited about having the chance to go again in a week where they are also facing the Cleveland Cavaliers after taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-14).
Key players are going to be missing for the Thunder and they are perhaps going to be in for a real fight to hold off the surging San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference. Just 3 games separate those teams as we are approaching the end of February and there are more than enough regular season games remaining to see that gap erased.
The hope is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be back in early March, even if the Thunder have shown off some of the depth to win three games in a row. The challenge here is that Oklahoma City are playing the second of a back to back, but they have won five of the eight games played without their best player on the court and that has to give the Thunder a huge amount of confidence.
Being on that back to back is a real contributory factor to the Thunder being set as a significant underdog, but they will believe they are still playing well enough at both ends of the court to avoid a blowout.
Detroit have been very good Defensively, but they do allow teams to have some success hitting the three pointers and that is where the Thunder have to try and make hay.
It is also really important for the Thunder to continue to lock in on the Defensive side of the court and being without the best Offensive player has just increased the intensity being shown. They will have to deal with a balanced approach that the Pistons have taken when they have the ball in their hands, but this spread may be a couple of points too high in favour of the hosts.
There will be plenty of motivation in the Detroit ranks to show they belong with the best teams, even if the Thunder are short-handed. That does make them dangerous, but this is an Oklahoma City team playing hard enough Defensively to perhaps keep this close, even if they are in a tough scheduling spot.
Prediction
Take the points with the road underdog.
The Pick :
Detroit Pistons 112-108 Oklahoma City Thunder
