Thunder vs. Timberwolves Game Two: Trends & Predictions

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00:00The Thunder have been at least a five-point favorite in all 12 of their playoff games so

00:04far this year. It's now a seven and a half number for game number two tomorrow night

00:09in Oklahoma City. That total, by the way, has dropped drastically. Not from the opening numbers,

00:15but the closing number last night of 218 and a hook or 219. Game number two's over under

00:20stands at 214 early. Your early impressions on the early line for game number two and what it

00:26says about this series. Yeah, again, it shouldn't change at all. Like, you shouldn't just watch one

00:31game like, ah, 13 and a half now, 14 and a half. That's not the way things work. We know the ebbs

00:35and flows of the NBA, particularly the ebbs and flows of how good a player can be a la Anthony

00:40Edwards and the underwhelming performance that he had because then we'd just be setting his points

00:44prop at 19 and a half. Oh, I only got 18 and a half game number one, Ben. All right, 19 and a half

00:47makes some sense. No, it doesn't. It'll still be in the high 20s. He has to exceed that if they want

00:51to win. But the way I looked at this series and said, here's the way it's going to play out.

00:55Oklahoma City, double digits in game number one. They won that. But I expect Minnesota to not only

01:00cover, if not win in game number two, because they're back into the series. They lost. They

01:05know they don't want to go down 0-2. They had a lot of time off to be rested and ready, which

01:08can be a good thing. But sometimes in basketball, throws you out of rhythm when you had OKC engaged

01:14in playoff mode off of a game number seven. A lot of adrenaline for game number one. We'll see how full

01:19that tank is for game number two. Am I saying Oklahoma City probably will lose this game? No,

01:23they're supposed to win. They're favored by seven and a half. But from a betting angle,

01:27now I'm looking towards the Timberwolves as I didn't want any piece, Ben, of the Timberwolves

01:31in game number one. The T-Wolves have been in the Western Conference Finals for two consecutive

01:35years. Minnesota is not going to bow out of this quickly, despite the oddsmakers now expecting

01:41a gentleman's sweep. Oklahoma City was a minus 375 outright favorite to win this series before

01:47last night. Before the opening game of this set, they're now minus 750. Shea Gilgis-Alexander

01:53was a minus 310 favorite to win Western Conference Finals MVP. He's now closer to a $5 minus money

02:02favorite. After a 31-point performance and being the game's leading scorer, I'm not so sure why his

02:08number isn't even closer to the minus 750 now for the Thunder to win this series outright. But of course,

02:14if OKC is victorious, you look in one spot. That is SGA. I will say, DRS, final point on this and this

02:22series to what you highlighted. You want to approach this a couple ways. You think the Timberwolves

02:26stay competitive in this series, maybe even forcing just at least a sixth game. You can bet

02:32Minnesota now in the series spread, getting two and a half games. They get to game six. You cash that ticket

02:37or the series total games over under over five and a half, which was juiced yesterday at minus 140

02:44is now just minus 104. You don't have to lay much on that to at least get to six games. Either way,

02:52you slice it. Yeah, we're going six games. I truly believe that. Like Minnesota's a good team. They'll

02:56play better defense. Their superstars will step up in games number two, three, and four, because if you

03:01lose game number two, you know it's kitchen sink for game number three. If they win that, maybe game

03:05number four, we get the extension, but this probably will come down to if you want six games,

03:09you need Minnesota to show up in game number two and win that game. And I think they legitimately

03:13have a chance to do that.