NBA Showdowns: Thunder vs. Pacers, Bucks & Heat Updates

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00:00The Thunder, one of the top teams in the NBA,

00:02leaders in the West, are at Indiana.

00:05Five and a half point favorites in this one for OKC.

00:08Spread of .227 in this contest.

00:11What do you think?

00:12Thunder come out of the break

00:13and reassert their dominance?

00:16I don't know, the Pacers all of a sudden figured it out.

00:20They're no longer that run-and-gun team here

00:23that we came to know last year

00:26where they wanna run and score as many points

00:28as humanly possible.

00:30Carlisle somehow convinced them to slow it down

00:34and you gotta actually play some defense

00:36in order to win games in the NBA

00:39because they were terrible at them to start this season.

00:42I mean, they were bad,

00:43didn't make a difference at home, away,

00:45but they ended this little break here before Christmas

00:48playing some really good basketball.

00:51A lot of that was on the road.

00:54They won, what, eight of 10 on the road,

00:56and yet you got OKC had to play in that NBA Cup,

00:59ends up getting embarrassed,

01:01but they bounced back pretty well from there.

01:04It feels like a light number,

01:06but I don't think the Pistons are gonna roll over

01:10like a lot of people think they are.

01:13Would not shock me if the Pistons keep this thing close.

01:16It also wouldn't shock me if this total lands

01:19under the .226 and a half.

01:23Bucs, of course, did not play on Christmas.

01:26No Giannis, no Lillard.

01:27They are home tonight against the Nets

01:29and massive favorites.

01:32I mean, not the biggest favorite on the board,

01:33but 10 and a half point favorites.

01:35Milwaukee and a team that is, as we know,

01:37played better in recent weeks.

01:38Do you expect that to continue here against Brooklyn?

01:43As long as we know who's playing for Milwaukee,

01:45and listen, the Nets are so ridiculously banged up.

01:49Cam Johnson not playing.

01:51I'm not betting the Nets.

01:53They have absolutely no scoring outside of that.

01:56And that's really been the problem for the Nets here

01:58over the last couple of weeks, Ben,

01:59is they don't have anybody healthy enough

02:03in order to be able to play.

02:05And the Bucs don't feel like

02:07they're gonna take a step back here.

02:09I think if Lillard and Middleton and Giannis

02:12and the regular crew is there,

02:14I think this is a runaway blowout

02:16for the Milwaukee Bucs tonight.

02:19In your backyard, the Battle of Florida, if you will.

02:23Miami and Orlando, it's, you know,

02:26you could debate how compelling a game it is,

02:28given all the injuries and some of that.

02:31But Orlando, despite being down its top couple of players

02:35and having other injuries sprinkled throughout the lineup,

02:37a one and a half point favorite.

02:39Of course, Miami, we, you know,

02:41now there are new reports about Jimmy Butler

02:43wanting out by the deadline.

02:45Just a lot of noise surrounding

02:47Eric Spolster and Pat Riley's club here.

02:50What does that lead to tonight?

02:53Not good, because that news came out yesterday.

02:56Then shortly afterwards, we watched that.

03:00He was doubtful for this game.

03:02All of a sudden he was ruled out

03:05with an illness or conditioning or personal reason.

03:09And you know what that means.

03:11That means he's not risking getting injured here

03:15if in fact a trade is on its way.

03:17And he hasn't made any demands,

03:20but right now this is a Miami team in flux here.

03:25There's no way you can hide that in a locker room.

03:27And yet Orlando is battling.

03:29Even without their big guys not available,

03:32they still have a lot of size.

03:34They still got a lot of determination.

03:36It also feels like a dead under to me, call me crazy,

03:39but I'd be looking at the under in this one also.

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