Tonight’s game at Orlando is the final one for the OKC Thunder before the All-Star break, so they’ll want to leave a good impression as the regular season shuts down for a week or so. After a pair of surprising losses at Utah and Dallas, the Thunder recovered well with a convincing 127-113 win against Sacramento. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had the biggest scoring game of the calendar year as he exploded for 38 points, he will be in Indiana over the weekend for the ASG. OKC beat tonight’s opponent already once this season, when these two teams met back in mid-January 112-100. It’s been all Thunder in head-to-head meetings over the past several seasons with them winning 9 of the last 13 meetings. They’ve also covered in 4 of their last 5 visits to Orlando, so spirits will be high among them as they head to Florida for this one.
The Magic have been on a really solid run lately winning 5 of their last 6 games and taking over as the leaders of their division ahead of the inconsistent Miami Heat. They find themselves currently in 6th place in the East, but with the struggling 76ers just 3 games ahead of them, even the 5th seed isn’t out of the question if you ask the most optimistic Magic fans. This team has done really well at home this season, they have one of the best records at 17-7 SU/ATS, in their 5 most recent games at the Kia Center they’re 4-1 ATS. Paulo Banchero and co. have no significant injuries to report ahead of tonight’s game, which is a big plus considering we’re past the half way point of the regular season. One thing the Magic will have to improve on compared to the first meeting of the season are turnovers. They committed 15 of them just 8 from OKC.
