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SteemSports presents the New Orleans Pelicans versus Oklahoma City Thunder

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Game Preview

ALL-TIME RECORD

Oklahoma City Thunder	26 Wins
New Orleans Pelicans	21 Wins

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The New Orlean Pelicans will be hosting Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night just before Christmas. Or should we rather say that Anthony Davis will host Russell Westbrook? Even though, those teams are showing different results, the gameplay is pretty similar, focusing on one player. In my eyes, we will see a close and open game with both teams scoring at least 110 points. That is a good one to see if you are a fan of highlights as well.

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Oklahoma City Thunder

You just cannot know what to expect from this year's Thunder. One night, Russell Westbrook might score 40 points, make 20 assists, get 20 rebounds and help his team blow out Warriors, but next night he might be able to build a new Taj Mahal from all the bricks he throws at the basket, losing to the 76ers. This kind of inconsistency keeps Thunder from climbing higher up the table. They are currently 7th with 16 wins and 14 losses. If they want to avoid huge teams like Warriors or Spurs in the first round of play-offs, Russell, with all his brilliance, has to play with more brain, and the whole team must win against opponents like Pelicans.

Victor Oladipo will probably miss this game and that will hurt Thunder a lot. Without Victor, Thunder already lost 3 our of their 4 last games, and it only shows that Westbrook, as anyone else in the world, needs help from his teammates.

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Leader of the pack: Russell Westbrook

Of course, the main and only leader of this Thunder team is Russell Westbrook. The guy is playing explosive basketball and he is still averaging triple double per game! The last guy who did it in December was legendary Oscar Robertson.

Russell managed to make 22 assists during Thunders win against Suns, and this game was a new high of Westbrook (yes, it is still possible). We could see that Russell's shot selection was perfect during this game, and that he could find his open teammates for easy points. If Westbrook will be able to keep his shot selection as it was against Suns, we will see him dominating even more.

As for the moment, Westbrook is still a beast, but with sometimes questionable and rushed decisions. Giving him some more basketball IQ might make him the best player on the planet.

Of course, there are other guys as well. Victor Oladipo is solid second option in offense, he is playing consistent, and better with every day. Sadly, he will most likely miss the game against Hawks, so others will have to step it up.

Steven Adams has found his scoring game, averages over 10 points, and is playing the main big guy of this OKC team. Also, other big guys like Kanter, Sabonis, and Lauvergne are always waiting for their moments, and usually capitalize on them.

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New Orlean Pelicans

The New Orlean Pelicans started the season poorly by losing 8 games in a row. Even magical basketball skills of Anthony Davis did not help. He scored over 50 points in first 2 games and it was really hard to watch him losing, and there were even some hoax about Anthony Davis being traded away. Things changed a little, when Jrue Holiday got back to the team after the injury and Pelicans started winning. They even managed to go on a 4 game win streak, before crashing again. This team has only won 3 out of they last 13 games... and most of the losses are by double digits with no chances to even think about the victory.

Only because the West Conference is pretty weak this season, Pelicans are standing 12th and are only 4 victories behind play-offs. However, I can only see this gap getting deeper with every week.

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Key Player: Anthony Davis

It is pretty obvious who is the leader of this young team - Anthony Davis. If not his personal efforts, I think Pelicans would be the worst team in NBA this season. To be honest, I doubt that they would win a single game. With all due respect to other guys, they are just a little too average or inexperienced to show results now.

However, Anthony Davis is that guy, who I would choose other any other basketball player at this very moment. He is 23 and dominating any other big guy in the league. Davis' defense is top notch as he is very rapid, has long arms to block shots, and even manages to make 1.5 steals per game. And you know what the most stunning thing is? Anthony Davis is mostly appreciated because of his offensive skills. He can shoot from any distance, his speed is no worse than any average league's guard and is probably the best among big guys, and his offensive arsenal blows my mind. All the fakes, spins, fade-away shots, and drives under the basket will make Anthony Davis the best player in the league in a few years time. I really hope the Pelicans will get him some reinforcement so he could have a shot at the title someday.

Apart from Davis, we should keep an eye on Jrue Holiday, Tim Frazier, and Buddy Hield. To be honest, even though the first two are showing better results, Pelican fans will have the most hopes in Buddy Hield, who only came to NBA this year as a 6th pick, and is already one of the main candidates to win a rookie of the year title. He is not yet capable of big things like Anthony Davis, but maybe in a few years...

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Prediction

I cannot imagine this game being a slow and low scoring. Both of the teams are really agressive on the offense, but struggling in defense, so we might see Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook making a good show.

I still think that Thunder has more resources to win, even without Oladipo. However, this should be a close game. There is no one in Pelicans team to stop Westbrook, but on the other hand, nobody from Thunder will be able to stop Davis. 60/40 to Thunder and if I would bet on something in this game, that would be over of total points.

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Presenter: @writingamigo

Originally, Kasparas is from Lithuania, and that automatically means that he is crazy for basketball. He is a geek for sports as he grew up watching everything that was airing (even curling once). Nowadays, Kasparas is practicing kick-box and traveling around Central & South America. The biggest heartbreak in his life so far, was when Italy beat Lithuania in 2004 Olympic basketball semi-finals.

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Editor: @cryptoiskey

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Jump-Ball | Submit votes by:

December 21st, 4PM/7PM ETPT

December 22nd, 12AM UTC

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