Oklahoma City Thunder vs Orlando Magic 3/23/22 NBA Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Orlando Magic and the Oklahoma City Thunder do battle at the Paycom Center on Wednesday night.

The Orlando Magic have been in decent form lately as they’ve won four of their last seven games overall and they will be aiming for a third straight victory after outlasting the Warriors in a 94-90 win last night. Wendell Carter Jr. led the team with 19 points, Franz Wagner added 18 points on six of nine shooting while Cole Anthony chipped in with 14 points and five assists, but no other player scored more than eight points. As a team, the Magic shot just 43 percent from the field and 10 of 36 from the 3-point line as they looked to be in trouble after trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter before they held the Warriors to just nine points in the final 5:59 to escape with the unlikely victory.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder have been in a major slump as they’ve lost 13 of their last 15 games overall and they will be hoping to snap a 10-game slide after coming up short to the Celtics in a 132-123 loss on Monday. Tre Mann led the team with 35 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 points with nine assists, Darius Bazley scored 22 points with 10 rebounds and three assists while Aleksej Pokusevski chipped in with 19 points off the bench. As a team, the Thunder shot 51 percent from the field and 17 of 37 from the 3-point line, but those stats don’t tell the true story as the Thunder fell behind by double-digits after allowing 38 points in the first quarter and things only got worse in the third quarter where the Celtics exploded for 43 points to put them behind by 26 points.

Looking at the betting trends, the Magic are 6-2 ATS in their last eight games against a team with a losing record, 5-1 ATS in their last six games against a team below .400 and 4-0 ATS in their last four games overall. The Thunder are 2-6-2 ATS in their last 10 home games, 22-9-1 ATS in their last 32 games against a team with a losing record and 4-0 ATS in their last four games overall.

Head to head, the Magic are 1-6 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and the Magic are 7-2 ATS in the last nine meetings in Oklahoma City.

The Magic are going to be shorthanded once again as Jalen Suggs and Markelle Fultz are both out, while Gary Harris and Wendell Carter Jr. are both questionable. The Thunder could be severely depleted in this one as they’re already missing key players in Luguentz Dort and Josh Giddey, but now they’re keeping an eye on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who is questionable for this one. The Magic will be playing this one on zero days’ rest, but the Thunder are really going to struggle to find points here, so I can see why the line is so short. You couldn’t bet on either side with much confidence, but I’m going to give the Magic some credit for their recent play and I’m taking them to escape with the narrow win here.