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SteemSports presents: Oklahoma City Thunder vs Miami Heat

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Game Preview

Thunder is coming to Miami just after Christmas is over. None of the teams will be ready to give away any free gifts, though. Miami has to start winning if they have any hopes of reaching the play-offs this season and Thunder finds themselves fighting for a home advantage in first round of the play-offs, which might be crucial. Both teams are not fully healthy and while Westbrook will be competing against Dragic on the court, Waiters will take on Oladipo in a contest of more fashionable Christmas suit. Those players will be highly missed by both teams, but it will still be hot in American Airlines Arena!

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Oklahoma City Thunder

Victor Oladipo will be absent again. He is the second most important guy in this team after Westbrook and his injury is heavily felt. However, Thunder are still showing pretty good results, even without one of their key players, and that can only indicate that this team is mature enough to be fighting in play-offs, despite all the speculations, after Durant left during the off-season. Good for Thunder. I really give my respect to the managers and coach staff for that.

So, Thunder's situation in the table is pretty safe at the moment. They are 6th at the moment, but only one win is separating 5th place to 7th. Also, 4th place is only 3.5 victories away for Thunder. What is the difference between finishing 4th and 7th in this Western Conference? Well, playing first round with a home advantage against Rockets or Grizzlies versus playing without home advantage against Warriors or Spurs. For those who are not following NBA, let me put it this way - 4th place means a real chance to win, while 7th place would only mean losing fast and miserably in the first round of play-offs, before starting a fairly early finishing season. Yup, winning has a high price for Thunder.

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Thunder belongs to Russell Westbrook

Of course, the main true leader of this Thunder team is Russell Westbrook. The guy is playing explosive basketball and he is still averaging triple double per game with only a week left to New Years! That is already sick and it looks like Russ is not ready to stop. I can only imagine how media would lose their heads (and escalate it for years) if Westbrook would finish the season averaging triple double.

Russell scored 45 points, made 11 assists, and 11 rebounds a week ago against Boston Celtics, showing that he is not planning to stop his domination this year. We could see that Russell's shot selection was perfect during this game: he made 5 of 7 threes and shot over 50 percent from the field. If Russ will understand how important is to make those right decisions during crucial moments of the game, he will become even better.

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 got injured and will have to miss rest of 2016, and will probably come back in a bad form.

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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Miami Heat

The struggle of the Miami Heat continues with the recent loss to New Orlean Pelicans. Heat only scored 87 points against one of the league's worst team and played pretty awful. It looks like Goran Dragic's and Hassan Whiteside's efforts are not quite enough for this team to become winners as they used to be.

One can only imagine how angry the fans of Miami Heat must be, seeing Heat drop to 13th place in the Eastern Conference with a poor 10-21 record. That same Heat team which won NBA 10 years ago with Wader and Shaq; that same team which dominated NBA 5 years ago with James, Bosh, and Wade. Yes, fans are more than hungry for the victories. They are used to it. However, some wishes are not meant to be... not even on Christmas.

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Key players for Miami Heat:

No more big 3 means that there must be a new leader in this Miami team. Players like Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, and Dion Waiters are really important when it comes to scoring, but I still believe that this team belongs to 3 other guys.

Goran Dragic. This guy from Slovenia proved himself as one of the best players from Europe. He is scoring over 19 points, dishing 6.6 passes, and adds 4 rebounds per game. Also, his is a very sticky defender, making life for opponents a little harder. On top of that, it looks like Goaran has reached very good form coming into 2017 and that is one of those rare good signs for Miami Heat fans. He is the main guy when it comes to creating offense, and his match-up against Westbrook will most likely be the key factor to determine the winner.

Justise Winslow. This guy is the future of Miami Heat; the future, which is already providing big. 12 points, 3 assists and over 5 rebounds per game is pretty impressive for a 20 years old boy. The main problem, for now, remains his poor shooting beyond the arc, which is a staggering 20 percent. Kid will have to work on that aspect of the game, if he wants to be an all-star (who doesn't?) in this type of NBA. Or he just has to get rid of shooting 3's and focus on other aspects of the game. I don't see any other way for success.

Hassan Whiteside. No doubts that this man is the most influential in Miami's team. 18 points and 15 boards per game is sick numbers. Whiteside is the best rebounder in the league so far and Miami Heat must be thankful to this guy for those 10 they have. Whitside could improve his free-throw shooting, so opponents could not use an easy way out while defending him. That would create more opportunities for him, and open up some spaces for the teammates. However, being such a monster in the paint, he is still fine, even with his 50 percent free-throw shooting. I highly predict that he will play in NBA all-stars game this year.

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Prediction

I see this one being a high scoring game. Whiteside will be dominating against the pretty weak front line of Oklahoma City Thunder, while Russell Westbrook will make sure to do what he was doing all season long. However, on top of that, Westbrook must defend in order for Thunder to win. Yes, if Goran Dragic will get his game going, we might see an upset in this one. But in the meantime, I believe that Thunder should find their way to leave Miami with a victory. It might be hard, but Thunder faced bigger challenges this year already.

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Presenter: @writingamigo

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Editor: @cryptoiskey

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December 27th, 7:30PM/4:30PM ETPT

December 28th, 12:30AM UTC

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