The Western Conference finals shift to Oklahoma City for Games 3 and 4 with the series tied 1-1. The Thunder got a big road win on Thursday night in Game 2 as they beat the Mavericks 106-100. Oklahoma City got a big effort from their bench and they were able to somewhat contain Dirk Nowtizki. Now the Thunder will try and take the lead in the series in Game 3 on Saturday night.

Oklahoma City is a 2.5 point favorite with a total of 200.5.

The Thunder evened the betting series on Thursday night thanks to head coach Scott Brooks. He stuck with his bench players along with Kevin Durant for the fourth quarter and they delivered in a big way. Brooks had the guts to bench starting point guard Russell Westbrook and it worked out brilliantly. Brooks still had Durant in the lineup but the other four players in the fourth quarter were Eric Maynor, James Harden, Nick Collison and Daequan Cook. Some coaches say that they believe in their bench players but Brooks backed up the talk with action and he was rewarded with the most important win in Oklahoma City history.

In addition to Brook’s gutty call there were two other reasons the Thunder won Game 2. The shot a sizzling 55.7 percent from the field and they contained Dirk Nowitzki. It helped their cause that for some reason the Mavericks stopped going to Dirk in the third quarter as he had just two shots. Nowitzki, who scored 48 points in Game 1, had just two shots and didn’t score in the third quarter but he still had 29 points. And it wasn’t because Oklahoma City played good defense. Dallas just went brain dead and didn’t feed Nowitzki the ball. If the Mavericks are to bounce back and win Game 3 that must change.

Here are the NBA betting stats for Saturday’s game. The Mavericks are 5-0-1 ATS in their last 6 road games. The Mavericks are 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog. The Thunder are 3-2 ATS in their last five home games including three straight covers. In this series, the Mavericks are 9-3-1 ATS in the last 13 meetings at Oklahoma City.

The Over is 4-0 in the Mavericks last 4 overall. In this series, the Over is 5-1 in the last 6 meetings but the Under is 7-1 in the last 8 meetings in Oklahoma City.