The Oklahoma City Thunder came out of the break a bit sluggish on Friday night as they hosted the Brooklyn Nets, but they found some rhythm as the game wore on to pick up a 105-86 win. The competition picks up a bit on Sunday afternoon, however, as the Cleveland Cavaliers come to town for a noon tip-off.
OKC hasn’t been a home underdog in the last two seasons, and for good reason. The only reason they are viewed as such today is because of injuries. Cleveland is a solid team, but they are almost completely healthy, whereas OKC is still without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Ajay Mitchell. While the Thunder can definitely pick up the win today by locking in on defense, I’m thinking the lack of scoring is what’s going to be their downfall, so I have a hard time not picking Cleveland.
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Tonight, the Thunder hosts the Brooklyn Nets in the first game in a week, and it should serve as a nice palate cleanser after a pretty rough loss to the Milwaukee Bucks before All-Star Weekend. SGA and JDub remain out, and Ajay Mitchell should be returning sooner rather than later, but for now, it will be up to a rotation of other guards to hold down the backcourt. Brooklyn is just 15-39 on the season, and they’re well on their way to playoff elimination, so regardless of who is healthy for OKC, the Thunder should be able to score a convincing win in front of the home crowd ahead of some much tougher opponents in the next week.
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This is near the largest spread of the season for the Thunder, and they’re missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. I know Brooklyn is bad, and they are coming off a 112-84 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland last night, but there may be some rust from the All-Star Break that OKC needs to work out. While I do expect a decent win, I think Brooklyn ends up covering this massive spread.
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