At some point, the NBA will realize it could charge more for a better product. <\/p>\n
The 82-game schedule makes it too logical for the Golden State Warriors to sit their stars in what should be a loss tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder. <\/p>\n
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In the long run, this loss benefits Golden State.<\/p>\n
My Thunder vs. Warriors predictions and NBA picks<\/a> look past this exasperation and find some value in an early Oklahoma City bet. Tip comes at 10 ET on Friday, January 2.<\/p>\n Thunder vs Warriors prediction<\/p>\n Thunder vs Warriors best bet<\/strong>: Thunder First Half -7.5 (-110 at bet365)<\/p>\n The Golden State Warriors<\/a> were already nine-point underdogs before announcing they would sit Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green tonight. <\/p>\n Golden State had plenty of reason to assume this would be a loss, and thus it could at least gain some rest and health by waving a preemptive white flag.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Thanks, 82-game NBA schedule.<\/p>\n The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> will probably sit their stars in the fourth quarter, a luxury enjoyed far too often by Oklahoma City. That sparks doubt in any full-game spread considerations.<\/p>\n But how confident are you that Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and De\u2019Anthony Melton can stay within even single digits of the Thunder in the first half?<\/p>\n Golden State is already an immensely flawed team, made evident by Green\u2019s continued theatrics on the sideline. <\/p>\n The Warriors are no longer a contender. Expecting a further-depleted Golden State to stay within any range of the best team in the NBA is nothing but foolish.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Thunder vs Warriors same-game parlay<\/p>\n A Thunder blowout should feature lazy second-half defense, sparking both an Over and a paper-thin scoring outburst from Brandin Podziemski<\/a>, the last remaining scorer active for the Warriors tonight.<\/p>\n Thunder vs Warriors SGP<\/p>\n Oklahoma City Thunder 1H -7.5<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Brandin Podziemski Over 14.5 points<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Our “from downtown” SGP: Shai isn’t Blowout Proof!<\/p>\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> has fallen short of this prop in three of his last four games, two of those moments coming courtesy of blowouts. A blowout should keep his workload below 30 minutes tonight.<\/p>\n Thunder vs Warriors SGP<\/p>\n Brandin Podziemski Over 14.5 points<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Shai Gilegous-Alexander Under 30.5 points<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Thunder vs Warriors odds<\/p>\n Spread<\/strong>: Thunder -13.5 | Warriors +13.5<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Moneyline<\/strong>: Thunder -650 | Warriors +475<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Over\/Under<\/strong>: Over 226.5 | Under 226.5<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Thunder vs Warriors betting trend to know<\/p>\n Golden State\u2019s last four games have gone Over their totals.\u00a0Find more\u00a0NBA betting trends<\/a> for Thunder vs. Warriors.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n How to watch Thunder vs Warriors<\/p>\n Location<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n Chase Center, San Francisco, CA<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Date<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n Friday, January 2, 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Tip-off<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n 10:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n TV<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n Prime<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Thunder vs Warriors latest injuries<\/p>\n Not intended for use in MA. This article originally appeared on Covers.com<\/a>, read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At some point, the NBA will realize it could charge more for a better product. The 82-game schedule…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[105764,2389,3140,3360,145063,1260,6949,1268,94955,62,24894,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-488111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-brandin-podziemski","9":"tag-draymond-green","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-jimmy-butler","12":"tag-moses-moody","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-oklahoma-city","15":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","16":"tag-shai","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-steph-curry","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115828013351292212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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