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In what amounts to be the start of one of the most highly anticipated series in NBA playoff betting action in a number of years, the Oklahoma City Thunder will travel to the Lone Star State to battle it out with the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

The motto for the West Finals this whole way through is whether youth and superstardom will be served, or whether depth takes over. If you’re a fan of the Thunder, you are hoping that it is stardom. There definitely aren’t many bigger stars than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in the NBA, especially when you consider the fact that they are a tandem. They are averaging over 50 points per game here in the playoffs, and they have the perfect third man in the rotation off of the bench in James Harden. This isn’t just a three-man team, though. Yes, scoring is sometimes thin across the rest of the team, but that doesn’t mean that Serge Ibaka, Thabo Sefolosha, Kendrick Perkins, and Derek Fisher aren’t all keys members of the squad that can put together big time games. This is a team that is growing for sure, and it hopes to make the next huge leap to get to the NBA Finals for the first time.

Meanwhile, San Antonio is going to hope that its veteran savvy and depth rule the day. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker all might be Hall of Famers one day, and that might be even more solidified if they are able to win yet another championship this year. Yes, these three are the major scorers on the team, and they are going to be the ones on the court when push comes to shove in tight games, but it has been quite a long time since there was a meaningful game that came down to the wire. In fact, over the course of the last 18 games, the Spurs are 18-0 SU and 15-2-1 ATS, and they have done so while resting some of their biggest names for the most part quite a bit. However, this Oklahoma City team is a heck of a lot different than the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz, both of which were swept out of the playoffs by these Spurs before the start of this series.

Perhaps later in this series when the games start to pile up, Head Coach Gregg Popovich can use his depth and his bench to wear down Durant and Westbrook. That being said, these two teams have had a long, long time to prepare for this series, and we think that if there is a spot that we would want to back the Thunder, this would be it. We want the points on our side in what should be the first close game in a very close series.

Oklahoma City Thunder @ San Antonio Spurs Game 1 Pick: Oklahoma City Thunder +5.5