The battle of the biggest and best of Texas is set to take place in Dallas this evening, as the San Antonio Spurs come to town to challenge Dirk Nowitzki and the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. Where are we placing our NBA picks in this matchup?
While the NBA betting lines opened at sportsbooks fairly low, the public has since
pounded Dallas up to -3 favorites at home. This state isn’t big enough for the
both of them, and most likely, neither is the Western Conference Championship
series. Which team will come out victorious and cover the NBA odds tonight?
Better with age
Despite
the fact that Manu Ginobli has been hurt most of the season, the Spurs still
find themselves well within the playoff picture, and even flirting with
possible home court throughout the playoffs if the Thunder start to falter.
Either way, as I mentioned in my Western Conference report at the halfway
point, this team is not as old as most think. Yes, Tim Duncan is way past his
prime, but he is still putting up better numbers then he did last season. Most
seem to think that Tony Parker is old. However, the Frenchman is only 29. The
rest of their core guys are quite young.
San
Antonio played last night and outplayed Oklahoma City down the stretch to earn
a 114-105 victory over the Thunder. Tony Parker once again brought his A-game,
as he scored 25 points. Now coming off of the back-to-back travel game, it will
be interesting to see which Spurs team shows up tonight.
What is
very curious about this game has been the spread. It opened up at -1 ½ in favor
of Dallas, and despite the public favoring the Spurs; the line has gone higher
in favor of the Mavs. The Spurs haven’t been very inconsistent off of back to
backs this season, but Dallas is not playing extremely well right now either.
Not-so defending champs
No one
can take away the fact that Dallas won a championship last season. However,
they sure didn’t act like they won a championship in the offseason. When the
lockout was lifted, the Mavs dumped core guys like Tyson Chandler, JJ Barea and
then injured Caron Butler. Why did they do this you ask? It’s because Mark
Cuban is a genius.
The Mavs
are set up to be loaded with cap space at the end of this season. Once they
dump Lamar Odom by not picking up his team option, and by not signing their
guys from last season, the Mavs are set up to not only be able to bring in the
likes of Deron Williams, they would have had the money to persuade Dwight
Howard as well. Now that Howard has opted in to his contract in Orlando, that
scenario is not as likely. However, I don’t think this means much for Howard
and his future in Orlando. I could still see him coming to Dallas some time in
the next year or so.
The Sharp Pick
Enough
about these two teams in the long run. We need to discuss tonight’s Battle O’
Texas. San Antonio and Dallas have split their 2012 season series against one
another, and the Spurs have covered in both games. The Spurs are also 7-2-1 ATS
against Dallas in their last ten meetings, dating back to April 2010.
As I
stated above, the line movement for this contest is a bit fishy. The Spurs are
6-4 on the latter game of back to backs this season. One of those wins was
against the Mavs on the second game of a back to back. With that being said, if
our friends at Vegas are baiting us, I can’t resist. The Mavs are 0-5 ATS in
their last five games, and are 0-5 ATS in their last five games against the
Spurs. They are only 1-4 ATS in their last five games playing San Antonio at
home.
I’m taking the points and possibly the bait for one of my NBA picks for
Saturday.
My Pick: Spurs +3