Grizzlies +6.5 in Sports Book Betting Over Thunder

Sports book betting fans and the favored Oklahoma City Thunder was caught off-guard to Memphis Grizzlies' performance in their first game against each other in the second round of the NBA 2010-2011 playoffs.

Memphis held OKC to 101 as they scored 114 at the end of the game. But the momentum switched at the second game when Kevin Durant scored 33 points along with 11 rebounds and Russell Westbrook had a solid offensive night with his 29 points and 6 assists.

Grizzlies will really need a lot of help from their big guys like Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol to keep their team in the series with OKC, as we all know how deep Thunder's bench is. But that doesn't seem to be a big problem considering the lacking front court OKC has right now. The Gasol and Randolph (Gandolph) combo combined to an unbelievable 54 points and 23 boards, which somehow offsets the Oklahoma's one two punch combo of Westbrook and Durant who score a combined 62 points.

Games in the playoffs really comes down to the supporting casts, OKC has a lot of those, but the thing about their front court – Perkins and Ibaka is that, Randolph and Gasol are wearing them down and their back-ups are not enough to support and hold their domination of the paint and boards.

OKC only got 2-4-1 Against The Spread in their last 7 games, and Memphis is valuing 7-0-1 Against The Spread in their last 8 games overall. Memphis frontcourt wise, is simply too big to handle for the OKC, not mentioning that Grizzlies is not getting any help from its star player Rudy Gay because of injury. Memphis is really the team sports book betting fans can rely on in NBA 2010-2011 playoff predictions as they gathered 7-15-11 against the spread record in their last 23 visits to the Thunders.

Though the Thunder got the win against the Grizzlies in the second game of their playoff matchup, it is evident that they don't get that much production from their big men, as Perkins only got 2 points and Collison contributed for only 5 points. Ibaka though had a solid game with 16 points and 11 boards. The size of Grizzlies' frontcourt really matters in the game as Randolph scored 34 points and M.Gasol scored 20.

Through-out the series, I expect the Memphis to pound more for inside points against the OKC. Their 3-1 record against OKC in the regular games of the season just shows that none of the wins of their wins over Thunder came from luck, as their big guys just dominate the paint all game long. Shane Battier and Tony Allen are better perimeter defenders, which can help contain other shooters of OKC throughout the series. Underrated backcourt players of Grizzlies such as Darrell Arthur, Greivis Vasquez, and Mike Conley will be a factor all series long, and former start O.J. Mayo will surely show more of his arsenal in the next games. This is why I'm giving Grizzlies a+6.5 in sports book betting over Thunder.