The San Antonio Spurs go for their ninth straight home victory when they host the Phoenix Suns tonight in the Lone Star state. Game time is 9:00 PM ET at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. See who we recommend placing your NBA picks.
Sportsbooks have opened with the San antonio Spurs listed at -7.5 with a total of 197. With two of the Suns' top players doubtful for tonight, are we sold on backing the Spurs?
Read our matchup preview to find out where we are placing our NBA picks in tonight's game.
The Spurs (8-4 SU, 5-7
ATS) will try to
improve to 9-0 at home and move a step closer to the 2007-08 San Antonio squad
that began the year 13-0. They’ll be facing a Phoenix team that will likely be
without Steve Nash and Grant Hill who are both nursing hamstring injuries. The
two veterans were hurt in Thursday’s 101-90 loss to Cleveland. Nash, in
addition to his quad injury, is also nursing a bad back.
The San
Antonio Spurs are coming off a 99-83 blowout of Portland on Friday night. Tony Parker
scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter Friday and is now averaging
17.8 points on 47.0 percent shooting at home. Over his last three outings Parker has scored at least 20 points in each
game, including 28 against Houston. He’s also shooting at a better than 50
percent clip over that stretch.
Tiago Splitter added 14
against the Blazers while DeJuan Blair had 13 and 11 rebounds for the Spurs who
won the battle of the boards 50-36.
Parker has taken over the Spurs scoring lead with an
average of 15.9 points per game and continues to be among the league leaders in
assists (7.4 apg). Tim Duncan is seeing limited minutes this season but still
leads in rebounds (6.6 rpg), while Blair is second in boards and first in field
goal percentage (53.5).
Overall San Antonio is fourth in the league in both
scoring (100.8) and field goal percentage (46.9). The Spurs are second from
beyond the arc draining 41 percent of their attempts.
Phoenix
falling
The Phoenix Suns (4-7 SU, 5-6
ATS) dropped their
third straight game on Friday falling to the New Jersey Nets 110-103. Marcin
Gortat led Phoenix with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Ronnie Price, who
started in place of Nash, had 18 points and eight assists. What the Suns didn’t have was an answer for Deron
Williams who burned them for 35 points and 14 assists.
Phoenix
has now dropped three straight as it begins a five-game road trip which will
include stops in Chicago, New York, Boston and Dallas. If the Suns return home
anywhere close to the .500 mark, consider it a very successful road trip.
Even
with Nash, Phoenix has been generating points like they have in past years. The
Suns are averaging 94.1 ppg which is good for 16th in the league but
are shooting at a respectable 44.9 percent clip. Gortat leads the team in
scoring (13.5 ppg), rebounding (7.8 rbg) and field goal percentage (63.3).
Trends
San
Antonio went 3-1 against Phoenix last season and is 21-13 in the last 34 series
meetings.
The
Suns are 9-2 ATS in the last 11 series meetings while the Spurs are 5-15-1 ATS
overall in their past 21 outings.
The
‘over’ is on a 9-2 run in the last 11 meetings but the ‘under is 8-3 in the
Suns 11 games this season.
One
final note and it’s a testimony to San Antonio’s tremendous depth; the Spurs
are 5-2 SU since losing Manu Ginobli to a broken hand.
Harvey’s
Take: No Nash or Hill spells big problems
against the red hot Spurs. Take San Antonio to win.
Good luck!