Dallas at Oklahoma City

The Dallas Mavericks began their defense of their NBA Title with a hurtful 1-point loss at Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City trailed for most of the game, and never led by more than 4 points, but found a way to gut out the win. The Thunder are winning despite the fact that bench players including Cook, Perkins, Fisher, and Collison missed every shot they took. They also played over 66 combined minutes which is certainly a good sign moving forward. The Mavs made 10-22 from beyond the arc that kept them close, but I expect things to be different tonight. The Thunder will have the motivational edge, and upside from what happened statistically in Game 1. Westbrook and Durant were a combined 2-8 from beyond the arc, so I would expect those numbers to be much better tonight as well. Play on Oklahoma City.