Oklahoma City Thunder vs Miami Heat Prediction: The Heat has no momentum at all

The NBA world is as strange as it gets. You have a basketball player like LeBron James unable to lead his teams to even 50% wins, someone who can be called the prototype of both a bygone era and modern era player, someone who needs not win any more championships to prove his mettle. A team can enter deep in the Playoffs during one season but stumble hard the next. This has been with the Miami Heat that will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in this cross-conference bout. 

The Heat comes into the affair lodging an 87:82 win against the Indiana Pacers as Bam Adebayo somehow managed 22 points in a grueling affair. This was Heat’s second win in three games but their overall tally of 15 losses and 13 wins is underwhelming for a team that was in the Conference Finals last season. The Heat is dead-last in points per game, with around 107 a game and their defense isn’t as elite as last season so the current record is natural. For a team that is as stacked as Miami, this record is rather surprising, but even last season, they gained their rhythm around midseason.

The Thunder enters the scene after a 114:121 loss against the Mavericks despite a herculean 42 points outing by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This was the third loss in a row for the Thunder which took them to 16 losses in 27 games. They are an improved team on the offensive end but their defense has taken a hit, thus, the scales are titled from the last season. This current improvement is again overly reliant upon Shai, who is averaging over 30 points but apart from him, the team lacks the offensive zip. Thus, the lack of depth remains and the Thunder has miles to cover.

The Heat hasn’t been playing well whereas the Thunder has been a team of higher quality, constantly pushing boundaries However, both in terms of depth and experience, the Heat is head and shoulders above the Thunder. But the NBA isn’t that simple, is it? However, you choose what you feel is a “Likely” scenario and the rest is well, not in your control. Anyway, that is a different issue. For this game, I’d still select Heat to win. I predict a scoreline of 111:105 in the Heat’s favor.