Oklahoma City at New Orleans

The New Orleans Hornets were out of the gate at 3-2, and appeared to be a lot more competitive than a year ago, after losing Chris Paul. That was short lived, as the Hornets have relapsed to a 1-8 mark over their last nine games. They often go through long offensive droughts, and they have suffered through six of their 14 games not making it out of the 80s. They have shown the ability to play on the defensive end at home, and will call upon that to slow down the Thunder train that has scored 100+ in eight straight while winning of those. More impressively the Thunder defense has come to life allowing their last three opponents to 87 points per game. New Orleans is going to shorten the game here they know they are no match for the Thunder in a track meet. The Thunder is getting stops on the defensive end which should continue vs. a poor Hornets attack. The Thunder are now 16-3-2 ATS in their last 21 vs. the West. When facing the slowdown tactics of bad teams on the road, those with a winning percentage of under .400 has led to four of their last five against them to the UNDER. The Hornets are just 1-5 ATS in their last six at home vs. a team with a road winning percentage of greater than .600. They have also been 6-1 to the UNDER vs. the same teams, at greater than .600. Take Oklahoma City and play the UNDER.