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Oklahoma City Thunder vs Melbourne United |
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|---|---|---|
2017 NBA pre-season, NBLxNBA, October 9 |
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| Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK | ||
| Oklahoma City Thunder | Melbourne United | |
| 86 | SCORE | 85 |
| 27 | Q1 | 30 |
| 22 | Q2 | 14 |
| 21 | Q3 | 22 |
| 16 | Q4 | 19 |
After starting the NBL season with a win, championship favourites Melbourne United will face an even bigger challenge when they head to the USA for a match with Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 6am (AEDT).
The Thunder have had a big off-season. After Westbrook single-handedly got them to the playoffs last year, taking out the NBA MVP award, he has plenty of support for the season ahead.
Oklahoma has done beautifully in the transfer window, acquiring the services of both Paul George and Carmello Anthony. While Westbrook missed their opening game of the pre-season, a loss to the Houston Rockets, he is due on the floor to play Melbourne.
The Thunder are playing in a loaded Western Conference this year and will want to be on from the get go as they attempt to reign in the all-conquering Golden State Warriors.
United, on the other hand are the NBL championship favourites. They have acquired maybe the best ever starting group in the history of the competition, with Chris Goulding, Casey Prather, Casper Ware, Josh Boone and Boomer David Andersen on the floor.
While point guard Goulding is out injured for this match, they still have a strong line-up under new coach Dean Vickerman.
It took some time for that to all gel in the season opener though, as they struggled to put the Adelaide 36ers away in a high scoring 99-97 victory, coming back through the second half.
This NBLxNBA series is about making history though, rather than the results for the NBL. A win for one of the visiting teams, after travelling halfway around the world would be an enormous upset, and that was shown last week.
In the opener of the three-match series, the Sydney Kings took on the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, with the Jazz taking a 25-point win after being 19 ahead at the quarter-time break.
Prediction
The hosts are quite obviously going to skip away with a big victory, but United, like the Kings before them should fight tooth and nail all the way.
Thunder by 21.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this NBLxNBA match from 6am (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment throughout the course of the coverage.