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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.