basketball | Monday, February 13, 2023 1:34 PM (Revised at: Monday, February 13, 2023 1:35 PM)

OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Best Bet: Thunder Continue Winning Streak

Milan Stanojic

OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Best Bet: Monday, February 13th

The OKC Thunder host the New Orleans Pelicans tonight at Paycom center for their 3rd encounter of the season. The Pelicans took the win in both of their clashes so far, but Mark Daigneault’s squad is in very good form at the moment. Much like last time, I’m expecting this to be a very high-scoring game, but I’m giving the Thunder an edge when it comes to the final result.

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OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Preview
OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Best Bet

OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Preview

Tue, Feb 14th. 01:00 (UK time)

The Oklahoma City Thunder were by far my favourite teams to bet on last season and they made my life so much easier. This year, they are overcoming expectations once again, being the best team against the spread in the entire NBA, having covered in 63% of their games so far. They are 10th in the West at the moment with a 27-28 record, and looking to go on a 3-game winning streak. The Thunder are coming off a 129-138 road win on Friday and are now returning to Paycom Center in very good form.

The Thunder are using this stage of the NBA season to rack up some much-needed wins and improve the mood in the locker room. They are doing this using their biggest advantage over the rest of the league – youth. The Thunder are a very young team with players who are capable of playing a lot of minutes and are currently one of the fastest teams in the league with a pace rating of 103.2. They are ranking 1st in offensive rating over the last 5 games whilst averaging 128.8 points per game.

The New Orleans Pelicans are coming into this game in very poor form, having won just 3 of their last 10 games. They are coming off a 107-118 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers and are starting a 4-game road trip tonight. We can expect the Pelicans to drop even further in the standings after this trip seeing as how they have been quite disappointing on the road this season. They have won just 9 of their 27 road games whilst covering the spread in 10 – ranking them among the worst 5 teams in the league.

They are among the better home teams in the league, and they have used their latest homestand well, winning 3 out of 4, but their net rating drops from 5.5 to 2.3 when going out on the road, and they have covered the spread in just 1 of their last 5 home games. They will be missing Zion Williamson whilst CJ McCollum is listed as ‘questionable’. The Pelicans have been one of the fastest teams in the league up until recently, and are now ranking 24th in pace rating with 98.5.

OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Best Bet

The Pelicans beat the OKC Thunder twice this season, once at home and once on the road. But their recent form has left a lot to be desired and they’ve reduced their number of possessions significantly.

We can expect a high-scoring game here, as the Thunder haven’t been playing very much defence, but have been averaging 8 possessions more per game than their opponents. I expect the Thunder to keep forcing their own playing style tonight and cover the spread against a road-wary Pelicans side.