After disposing of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in a quick four games, the Oklahoma City Thunder got eight days rest as they prepare to host the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinal on Monday night at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. <\/p>\n
Date\/Time: 9:30 PM ET, Monday, May 14, 2012 Matchup<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Preview<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Los Angeles meanwhile, are entering Monday’s game off just a one-day break after needing seven games to eliminate a pesky Denver Nuggets team that fought back from being down 3-1 in the series to force the deciding matchup on Saturday at the Staples Center.<\/p>\n Despite the Nuggets hanging around for most of the contest, the Lakers were able to outmuscle them down the stretch, and behind a gritty defensive effort from Metta World Peace who returned from suspension, and a dominant inside game from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, LA walked away with a 96-87 win.<\/p>\n Gasol, who scored a season-low three points in Game 6, had 23 points and 17 rebounds and Steve Blake came off the bench to score a playoff career-high 19 points. In the meantime, Kobe Bryant had a relatively quiet 17 points, but did have eight loud assists and a huge smile when the game was over. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n It was the Lakers’ 16th victory in a Game 7, second only to the Boston Celtics’ 20.<\/p>\n In spite of the Lakers maximum effort, even more impressive was the way the Thunder manhandled the Mavericks in their series, sealing the deal with a 103-97 victory back on May 5.<\/p>\n James Harden scored 15 of his playoff career-high 29 points in that outing, while three-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant added 24 points and 11 rebounds, as the Thunder stormed back from a 13-point deficit in the final 10 minutes to end Dallas’ hopes for a repeat.<\/p>\n It was the first series sweep for the franchise since 1996, when the Seattle Supersonics easily handled the defending-champion Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n After they themselves where eliminated last season, Oklahoma City looks poised this time around.<\/p>\n The Thunder have already taken two of three regular-season meetings with the Lakers who won their most recent encounter, escaping with a 114-106 overtime win April 22.<\/p>\n Free Pick : Thunder-<\/strong> Durant averages 25.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 17 career games against the Lakers, and will definitely be a handful for some weary Lakers’ legs. Throw in All-Star point guard Brian Westbrook and the possible return of big Kendrick Perkins, and I look for the Thunder to take Game 1 at home.<\/p>\n NBA Playoffs Basketball Matchup: Nuggets vs Lakers After disposing of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in a quick four games, the Oklahoma City Thunder got eight days rest as they prepare to host the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinal on Monday night at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":37873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[43091,5922,22695,22774,53756,4751,5148,749,12359,12357,3925,10568,8471,4398],"class_list":["post-51299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-bet-nba-basketball","tag-free-nba-pick","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-lakers","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-lakers","tag-nba-gambling-online","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-playoff-predictions","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-predictions","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51312,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51299\/revisions\/51312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVenue: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
\nBroadcast: TNT
\nSpread: OKC -7.5
\nOver\/Under: 191.5<\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK HERE FOR THE BEST NBA BASKETBALL HANDICAPPING PREDICTIONS ALL SEASON LONG \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"