It took until the final day of the regular season, but the first round matchups in the NBA Western Conference playoffs have been set and the No. 5 seed Denver Nuggets will square-off against their Northwest Division rival, the No.4 seed Oklahoma City Thunder in this best-of-seven series.
Denver finished the regular season on a roll with seven victories in its last 10 games and was 6-2 against the spread in its last eight. The Nuggets ended the year 50-32 straight-up and 44-34-4 ATS. The total stayed ?under? in six of its last 10 games and in 42 of 82 games overall.
Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler have done a great job filling the void left by Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. They have combined for 27.2 points a game to help lead Denver to the highest scoring average in the NBA, with 107.5 points a game.
Oklahoma City also won seven of its last 10 games to finish the season 55-27 SU and 43-38-1 ATS. It was tied for the third-best road record in the West at 27-14 SU. The total went ?over? in four of its last five games and in 45 of 82 games overall.
Kevin Durant made a strong case for this season?s MVP with a league-high 27.7 points a game. Combined with Russell Westbrook?s 21.9 points a game, these two have accounted for 47.3 percent of the team?s points this season. Kendrick Perkins leads the team in rebounds with 7.9 a game since coming over from Boston.
The Thunder went 3-1 both SU and ATS against the Nuggets this season including a 101-94 victory on April 5 as a 4 ½-point underdog and a 104-89 romp as a 4 ½-point favorite on April 8. The total stayed ?under? in the last three meetings.
Oklahoma City is poised to make a deep run in this year?s playoffs but getting by Denver in this series will not be as easy as it looks. These two teams have a genuine dislike for one another and this should be a battle to the end. Home-court advantage prevails as the Thunder wrap this series up with a win in Game 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.