Miami can turn up Heat on Oklahoma by extending series lead
Published:After claiming the first game of the series against Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder have lost the two succeeding fixtures, and now will be desperate to get back on track by winning game four at 7/5.
On recent evidence though, it seems wise to side with Heat, who, after landing a 91-85 triumph in last week’s meeting, are 5/8 to make it a hat-trick of consecutive wins over OKC.
Despite Heat’s distant shooting being below par in that last outing, Thunder failed to capitalise, and eventually surrendered the ten point lead they had garnered by the third quarter.
With that in mind, Thunder could be worth taking on as 5/6 shots to lead during the third quarter, whilst attributed a 0.5 point advantage over their hosts.
However, they will be reliant upon an improved showing from Kevin Durant if they are to pose any real threat to Heat’s recent dominance in the series over the full course of the game.
His defensive play has been less than impressive, with an average of just 5.7 rebounds per game throughout the series, though the 25 points he notched in the last game demonstrated that his attacking prowess remains.
Taking that, along with the attacking talents within Heat’s ranks into account, and the game looks good to feature over 192 points at 10/11.
Indeed, LeBron James is averaging more than 30 points per game in this series, and even hitting that type of score regularly, doesn’t appear to be in peak form.
The same cannot be said of his team-mate Chris Bosh however, and his performance in a defensive capacity makes the 5/6 for Oklahoma to score less than 94 points look great value.
Bosh has been outstanding in the last two renewals of acquaintances between these sides, and at his most comfortable at home, could contribute significantly to another strong defensive showing by Miami.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
