I spent the night at Circa’s Legacy Club hanging out with new UNLV football coach Dan Mullen, so I asked VSiN.com senor editor Zach Cohen to tell me what I missed on Game 6 of the NBA Finals:
If you thought the Pacers were going to roll over and hand the Thunder a title in their own building, you thought wrong. The bad Oklahoma City showed up in Game 6, scoring just 88.1 points per 100 possessions. That was the team’s worst offensive performance of the entire playoffs. I would say I was surprised by that showing, but I had Indiana and the crux of that handicap was the fact that OKC has been miserable offensively on the road these playoffs. The Thunder are also 1-9 against the spread on the road this postseason.
The good news for OKC? Game 7 will be played at home, and the Cavaliers’ Game 7 win over the Warriors in 2016 marked the first time since 1978 that a road team won a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. The bad news? Tyrese Haliburton looked great in Game 6, finishing with 14 points and five assists in 23 minutes. Indiana did a good job of managing that calf injury, and the Pacers have to be treated like a healthy team heading into the final game of the year. On top of that, Rick Carlisle is clearly more comfortable than Mark Daigneault when it comes to making adjustments and prepping his team. Also, Oklahoma City’s young players might be comfortable at home, but will they be comfortable in a game with this much pressure?
The Thunder are 8.5-point favorites in the game, and their +20.7 home net rating in the playoffs has to count for something. But I’m personally expecting another strong performance out of the Pacers, and it’s hard not to see some value in a big spread when the total opened at 214.5.
(Oh, and that Game 4 no-cover from Indiana still stings. With Pacers +6.5 hitting in Game 6, I would have locked in a tie with Steve Fezzik in the KillerSports contest. That would have been a nice confidence booster in my intro to contest play. But I’m sure I had a lucky win somewhere along the way, so I’ll get over it. Congrats to Fezzik on another contest takedown. He was sharp and had a strategy the entire postseason. I was winging it a bit, going with my gut rather often. Though you’d maybe do the same if you had a gut this size.)
Meantime, I’m ready to bet the Over on the UNLV season win total and buy season tickets.
MLB Today
Greg Peterson has seven Best Bets for today’s menu.
Steve Makinen and Josh Appelbaum will file their daily contributions later this morning.
Quick Hits
Horse Racing: Ed Sehon has picks for today’s Churchill Downs card. >>Watch the replay of VSiN At The Track with Mike Somich and Aaron Halterman, who cover Saturday’s Chicago Stakes at Churchill and the Ohio Derby at Thistledown among other topics. Horse racing coverage is sponsored by 1/ST BET. Get your $200 sign-up bonus.
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