Sportsbook Betting: Thunder Respected in Sportsbook Odds. The Oklahoma City Thunder is getting respect on the odds board at the sportsbook, from fans and from the league. Oklahoma City had an excellent regular season as they won 50 games and their head coach Scott Brooks was named NBA coach of the year. The Thunder were also a point spread success at the offshore sportsbook in 2009-2010.
Sportsbook statistics indicated that the Thunder won 27 more games this season than they did a year ago. Oklahoma City was awful at the beginning of last season but they turned things around mid-season and this year they were excellent. Brooks was named NBA coach of the Year on Wednesday. He received 71 of 123 first-place votes and 480 points to finish well clear of Milwaukee head coach Scott Skiles and Portland’s Nate McMillan. “He’s someone that I think is incredibly consistent as a person. He is unaffected through adversities and also through successes, and I think that’s an important quality we want to have as we move forward,” Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti said. The NBA head coach of the year is selected by a panel of 118 sportswriters and broadcasters from the U.S. and Canada.
Oklahoma City was in the playoffs for the first time since moving from Seattle and sportsbook information indicated that the team was learning from the experience in their series against the Los Angeles Lakers. “This is the first-time playoff experience for a lot of us, including myself, and you’re playing against one of the best coaches of all sports, one of the best players ever and a team that has 1,000 [games of] playoff experience to ours,” Brooks said. “But you learn from playing against the best players and the best teams, and we’re going to keep fighting and figuring out ways to beat them.”
Those who wager at the offshore sportsbook can see that Brooks has done an excellent job with young players like Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. “We were improved once he took over as the coach. We still lost some games that were tough but we were learning and we were getting better each day in practice,” said Durant, “I knew if we continued to do that and not come in and just say, ‘Our season’s done. Ain’t no need to practice. Ain’t no need to work hard.’ We still came in and worked every day, and he made sure he brought it every day as a coach.” The Thunder basically have the same group of players that they had a year ago which is a testament to just how good a coaching job Brooks has done.