The heated NBA playoff betting series between the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs shifts to the AT&T Center on Friday night where the home team will look to eat into the visitor’s 2-0 series lead; tip is scheduled for 9:30 ET and can be seen live on ESPN’s national broadcast.
The NBA lines list the Spurs as 7-point favorites with an over/under of 205.5.
The San Antonio Spurs put forth a gargantuan effort on Wednesday night at the US Airways Center, but in the end, it was the Suns that ultimately triumphed by a 110-102 final count. The eight-point victory saw Phoenix move to 2-0 both SU & ATS in the series; the over has cashed in both games.
The Suns took every blow landed by the Spurs in Game 2 with an answer of their own what seemed to be every single time. Things started to get hairy in the 2nd quarter, but Jared Dudley came off the bench and lit a spark under the Suns’ behinds with a number of big scoring plays; he ended up with 11 points and six rebounds.
Second year C Channing Frye also came up huge for the hosts by nailing five of his six attempted shots from beyond the arc.
G’s Steve Nash and Jason Richardson chipped in with 19 points apiece, and Amare Stoudemire tallied his second double-double of the playoff betting series with 23 points and 11 rebounds.
The Phoenix Suns will look to take a stranglehold of the series away from their own house where they stand 24-20 and 25-19 ATS. They went 2-1 SU & ATS at Portland in the first round of the playoffs.
Though the Spurs have dropped each of the first two games of this series, head coach Gregg Popovich has to be thrilled with his offenses efficiency. The unit has played close to par with its overall season average of 47.3 percent shooting 45.8 percent in Game 1 and 50.6 percent in Game 2.
The trio of Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan have all played large roles in the Spurs scoring output. Parker has averaged 23 PPG and five assists, Ginobili’s averaged 19 PPG and eight assists, while the big man, Tim Duncan, has averaged 24.5 PPG and 10.5 RPG.
After scoring just five points in Game 1, Richard Jefferson tallied 18 points in Game 2 and looked to finally be in a solid flow within San Antonio’s offense.
The biggest problem for the Spurs thus far has been their inability to stop Phoenix offensively; mainly the pick and roll as Nash and Stoudemire continuously ate the defense apart in Game 2. The Spurs have also been outrebounded badly in both games losing the battle of the boards 44-38 in Game 1 and 49-37 in Game 2.
San Antonio has been a much better squad when playing in front of its home crowd going 32-12 SU & 26-16-2 ATS this season. The Spurs went 3-0 SU & 2-0-1 ATS in the first round vs. the Mavericks.
Phoenix holds a 4-1 SU & ATS advantage over the Spurs in the team’s five overall meetings this season. The Spurs won by a 113-110 final tally as four-point home favorites the only time they met up in the AT&T Center way back at the end of February.
The Spurs are 6-4 SU but just 3-6-1 ATS the L/10 times they invited Nash and company to see the Alamo; the over is 4-2 ATS the L/6 times these clubs battled in tonight’s venue.
Phoenix went 5-5 SU but a $$$-making 8-2 ATS as a road underdog of 3.5-6 points this season, while San Antonio is 8-3 ATS the L/11 times it played off a SU defeat.
Mike Rose has been in the sports handicapping business for over a decade, and is a leading sports writer for some of the top sports betting news websites on the internet. To keep up with him on a daily basis, you can