Oklahoma City Thunder vs Miami Heat Game 5 Pick

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NBA 2012 Finals Betting Preview- Game 5 The Thunder look to overcome the Heat this Thursday night in Miami

Oklahoma City faced a must-win situation in Tuesday night’s Game 4 already trailing this series two games to one. It appeared to be a team on a mission with a dominating 33-19 lead after one quarter of play, but things quickly unraveled as it turned a 14-point lead into a four-point deficit after three quarters of play. The Thunder could never close the gap and ended-up on the wrong end of a 104-98 final score as three-point road underdogs. The total went ‘over’ the 192.5-point line.

This performance has been indicative of this series ever since Oklahoma City beat Miami 105-94 as a five-point home favorite in Game 1. Kevin Durant rebounded from a less than stellar performance in Game 3 with a game-high 43 points and Russell Westbrook chipped-in another 28 points, but it still was not enough to keep the Thunder from falling into a dreaded 3-1 hole from which no team in NBA Finals history has ever climbed out of to win a title.

Miami has been able to make the most of the 2-3-2 format that is used by the NBA just for the Finals and will now have one more game at home to close things out. It has gone 5-5 straight-up on the road this postseason, while going 10-2 SU at home. The key to this series was the Heat’s 100-96 victory in Game 2 on the road as 5.5-point underdogs.

The NBA should not only be shining-up the championship trophy in anticipation of a possible presentation to the Heat after Thursday night’s game, it should be ready to engrave LeBron James name to its MVP award. He has been nothing short of spectacular in this series with an average of 29.3 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists through the first four games. Dwyane Wade has certainly helped the cause with 93 points, 22 rebounds and 23 assists and Mario Chalmers 25 points on Tuesday night were instrumental in locking-up Game 4, but this entire series has been the King James’ show with the NBA’s biggest but most maligned All-Star holding court.

Prediction

Oklahoma City has been game in the past three contests, but its youth and inexperience on the sport’s biggest stage is starting to really show. Durant and Co. have the heart and the will to win; they just do not have the wherewithal to get the job done. Miami will not blow a golden opportunity to close this series out at home as it once again pulls away down the stretch to get this one final win. Miami 106 Oklahoma City 98