Basketball Odds – Suns and Spurs Battle it Out Again in the Playoffs

The San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns have had some classic battles in the playoffs in recent years. In fact, during the Spurs’ last two championship runs, they took out the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Playoffs. They’ll be looking to do the same again when the two teams face-off in Game 1 of their best of seven series on Monday night.

The San Antonio Spurs pretty much dominated the Dallas Mavericks in the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs. Usually as the underdog basketball bet, the Spurs did what they often do to their inter-state rivals, dominating them on the defensive end, and eliminated the Mavs in 6 games. Can the 7th seeded Spurs do the same to the 3rd seeded Suns? They start their quest on Monday night.

The basketball betting lines list the Spurs as the slight underdogs in Game 1.

San Antonio Spurs +4 -110 +160 O 203 ½ -110

Phoenix Suns -4 -110 -190 U 203 ½ -110

The trends favor neither team in this game.

• The San Antonio Spurs are 4 and 1 ATS in their last 5 Conference Semifinals games.
• The San Antonio Spurs are 4 and 1 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog of ½ to 4 ½ points.
• The Phoenix Suns are 8 and 2 ATS in their last 10 games as a home favorite of ½ to 4 ½ points.
• The Phoenix Suns are 15-5-1 ATS in their last 21 games at home.
• These two teams are a contrast in styles. The Phoenix Suns like to run and gun while the San Antonio Spurs prefer to play defense.

The thing about the Spurs is that they can run with the Suns, but in order to win the series the Spurs will have to stop the Suns from running. It appears that San Antonio has had trouble doing that.

In three games during the regular season between these two teams, the Suns went 2 and 1. Phoenix beat San Antonio 116 to 104 in the first game between these two. In the second game, the Spurs won 113 to 110 and in the third game the Suns won 112 to 101.

What sports gamblers should notice is that in the two victories, the Suns blew out the Spurs while in the lone San Antonio victory, the Spurs had to hold on tight in order to beat the Suns.

That pattern could repeat itself on Monday night with the Spurs, whether they like it or not, getting into a shooting match with the Suns. The only difference is that the Spurs might not be able to keep pace with the Suns on Monday night.

Save for a loss to the Portland Trailblazers in Game 1 of their 1st round series, Phoenix has been deadly at home during the playoffs. In the two victories against the Trailblazers at home, the Suns shot at least 48% from the field. If they do that on Monday night against the Spurs, San Antonio is going to have little chance of covering this spread.

The basketball bet is on the Phoenix Suns to cover the 4-point spread on Monday night.

NBA Free Picks: Phoenix Suns -4