With the All-Star weekend out of the way we move on into the 2nd half of the 2015-16 NBA Regular Season and here we preview the Eastern Conference No. 6 Indiana Pacers 28-25 playing the Western Conference No. 3 Oklahoma City Thunder 40-14 with the game being played on Friday the 19th of Feb. 2016 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with the tip-off scheduled for 8:05 PM ET.
The Thunder come into this game with their star R. Westbrook who won the All-Star MVP Title, along with his teammate K. Durant seeking to continue their teams latest win streak to 3 games with a win over the Pacers Friday night, as they are the host to the 6th ranked Eastern Conference Indiana.
If you’re a fan of the Indiana Pacers and Bet on NBA at an online sportsbook your teams star P. George, who played in the All-Star game and scored some 41 points, is now looking to win a game, and one that counts for his team, while he leads his team into this 2nd half of the season starting with OKC on the road Friday.
The Pacers best player, unquestionably is P. George as he leads the team in points averaging 23.5 per game, with 7.2 rebounds and 1.9 steals each game. Unfortunately his performance of 22 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists on the 10th of Feb. 2016 wasn’t sufficient to help his team avoid losing to the Hornets 117-95.
The Pacers will need the best out of George this Friday offensively and the rest of the team to step up to assist in offsetting the scoring feats of the Thunder’s Durant and Westbrook. The other players that need contribute are M. Ellis, M. Turner and C. Miles. To date Ellis has average 13.8 points each game, with Turner scoring 10 points each game and Mile scoring 12.2 points each game. Turner also has beefed up their defense that now ranks 8th in the NBA allowing opponents 100.4 points each game. On the road this season the Pacers are averaging 102.3 points each game.
If you’re a fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder you know your team before the All-Star break won a couple of easy games beating the Suns of Phoenix 122-106 and the Pelicans of New Orleans 121-95 and now come back to action Friday Night at home court where in their ultimate 10 games they have 9 wins and 1 loss straight up.
The Thunder will be depending offensively on Westbrook and Durant to take them past the Pacers, since Durant is ranked at 3rd in the NBA for scoring at 27.8 points each game, and in his last 15 games he stepped up his points to average 30 and shooting 49%. He certainly can create problems for the Pacers as to who will guard him, will also slowing down Westbrook.
Westbrook on the other hand this season to date has averages some 24.3 points each game and also each game averaging some 11 assists. Apart from these 2 stars threat on the perimeter, they will also look to take advantage on the inside since they are ranked 3rd in that category. Primarily, because they’ve had great offensive rebounding each game, that averaged some 13.8 rebounds, plus they have the talent to turn the rebounds into points, ranking 2nd in the NBA in 2nd chance points at 47.3 each game.
Back on the 11th of Feb. 2016 when they beat the Pelicans they had 9 rebounds offensively and scored some 54 points from the paint, while from 3-point range they made 12 of their 32 attempts.
The offshore bookmaker’s prediction for this Friday NBA game is that the Thunder will prevail in a very close game and beat the Pacers 105-102!