Utah Jazz @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
December 13, 2015, 6:00PM CST
Our UNDER 204 wager cashed in when the Jazz hosted the Thunder on Friday. Just two days later, these teams are slated to collide again -- this time at Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy Arena. As far as we can tell, aside from location, little has changed. Accordingly, we are advocating the UNDER yet again.
Our computer work, on average, anticipates a final score of 94.9-104.9, Oklahoma City (Las Vegas lines imply a final of 96.25-106.25 for tonight). Thus, we think the Thunder offense will be more effective at home than was the case last out in Salt Lake City (which makes intuitive sense as role players in particular are generally more comfortable and, by extension, productive when nestled in the sanctity of home). We also expect that the scoring shortage we are looking for will be balanced approximately equally among these two teams, as was the case Friday (when each squad logged about 10 points less than betting lines were looking for; we anticipate a deficiency of 1-2 points each tonight).
In spite of the huge disappointment (scoring-wise) in the meeting two moons ago (the combined total registered 20 points lower than the betting line), the OVER/UNDER for tonight's contest sits at 203.5 currently -- a mere half point off of where we recommended the UNDER for the previous game. Given that UNDER backers collected at the end the the night Friday, betting trends we cited then in support of our position offer an even stronger endorsement today.
The total for tonight's game opened at 201.5 according to OddsShark, before OVER supporters stepped in and drove the number two points higher. Per SportsInsights, and for reasons we can not fathom, 54% of total wagers are backing the OVER.
We, on the other hand, recommend attempting to exploiting both teams' tendency toward lower scoring affairs, and are backing the UNDER.
Happy betting!!