NBA Knowledge
Monday's hot teams
-- Cleveland won five of its last seven games (2-5 last 7HF).
-- Charlotte won nine of its last 11 games (5-3-1HU).
-- Spurs won their last six games (3-5 last 8AF).
-- Pistons won three of last four at home (14-3-1 last 18HF).
-- Bucks won four of their last six games (3-6 last 9AU).
-- Hawks won eight of last nine games (4-1 last 5HF).
-- Washington won its last four games (0-5 last 5AU).
-- Chicago won three of its last four games (6-3 last 9HF).
-- Warriors won seven of their last eight games (2-4 last 6AF).
Cold teams
-- Indiana lost three of its last four games (3-6 last 9HF).
-- 76ers lost their last five games (3-4 last 7AU).
-- Nuggets lost three of their last four games (2-4 last 6AU).
-- Celtics lost four of their last five games (9-5 last 14HF).
-- Orlando lost four of its last five games (3-1 last 4AU).
-- Sacramento lost seven of its last nine games (2-5 last 7AU).
-- Minnesota lost seven of its last ten games (5-3 last 8HU).
-- Memphis lost four of its last five games (4-1 last 5AF).
-- Suns lost four of their last six games (2-5 last 7HU).
Series records
-- 76ers lost seven of last eight games with Indiana.
-- Nuggets won three of their last four visits to Cleveland.
-- Spurs won their last ten games with Charlotte.
-- Bucks lost three of last four visits to Milwaukee.
-- Home side won last ten Orlando-Boston games.
-- Hawks won five of their last six games with Washington.
-- Bulls won three of their last four games with Sacramento.
-- Warriors won their last six games with Minnesota.
-- Suns are 2-8 in last 10 games with Memphis, but won last two.
Totals
-- Five of last seven Indiana games stayed under the total.
-- Four of last five Denver games went over the total.
-- Under is 3-1 in last four games for both Spurs/Hornets.
-- Six of last eight Milwaukee games stayed under total.
-- Five of last seven Orlando games stayed under the total.
-- Last four Washington games stayed under the total
-- Last five Sacramento-Chicago games stayed under the total.
-- Over is 5-2-1 in last eight Golden State games.
-- Seven of last nine Memphis games went over.
Back/backs
-- 76ers are 3-7 vs spread last 10 times they played night before.
-- Bucks are 7-5 vs spread on road if they played night before.
-- Celtics are 5-2 vs spread last seven times they played the night before.
-- Orlando is 3-6 vs spread last nine times they played night before.
-- Sacramento is 8-7 vs spread if it played the night before.
Armadillosports.com
Game of the Day: Spurs at Hornets
Covers.com
San Antonio Spurs at Charlotte Hornets (+6, 199.5)
The Charlotte Hornets hope to be catching San Antonio at the right time and will be attempting to halt a 10-game losing streak against the Spurs on Monday. San Antonio posted an 87-79 victory in its showdown with the Golden State Warriors on Saturday and will have to guard against a letdown.
The Spurs have won six consecutive games and are just three games behind the Warriors for the top spot in the Western Conference after the impressive victory in which it held Golden State to a season low in points. All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 13 rebounds to top 20 points for the ninth time in 10 games and he is averaging 24.2 points during the stretch. Charlotte has won 15 of its last 19 games but put together a substandard effort while suffering a 101-93 home loss to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. "There are only four or five teams in this league who are good enough to show up, not play their A-game and win," Hornets coach Steve Clifford told reporters. "If we're not going to have everybody pretty much engaged and playing well, we don't beat anybody."
LINE HISTORY: The Spurs opened as 6.5-point favorites on the road and the total debuted at 199.5 on Sunday afternoon.
INJURY REPORT:
Spurs - No injuries to report.
Hornets - PF S. Hawes (Questionable Monday, back) C C. Zeller (Questionable Monday, knee)
POWER RANKINGS: Spurs (-16.5) - Hornets (-5.7) + home court (-3) = Spurs -7.8
ABOUT THE SPURS (59-10, 41-28 ATS, 30-37-2 O/U): Future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan came off the bench for only the third time in 1,383 regular-season games on Saturday when San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich decided to counter Golden State's smaller athletic lineup by starting Boris Diaw at center. Duncan only played eight minutes and had one point and two rebounds and Aldridge was among the Spurs who felt his acceptance of the lineup change was a big factor in the contest. "He's such a great person," Aldridge told reporters. "He didn't pout. He was very positive. He was talking to me. I don't know if many guys in that position would have handled it as well as he did."
ABOUT THE HORNETS (39-30, 36-32-1 ATS, 32-35-2 O/U): Charlotte is part of a four-team battle to finish third in the Eastern Conference and that made the home loss to the lowly Nuggets even harder to accept. The Hornets trailed by 17 points at halftime and coach Steve Clifford was dumbfounded by the lack of effort and the team's body language. "Whenever there was a mistake, heads were down," Clifford said. "Again, you're going to play the game you're prepared to play, just like every game. You get up with the right attitude in the morning. You get up with a bad attitude, something goes wrong and it screws your whole day off. Playing sports it's the same way."
TRENDS:
* Spurs are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest.
* Hornets are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games following a ATS loss.
* Under is 7-0 in Spurs last 7 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
* Under is 4-1 in Hornets last 5 vs. a team with a winning straight up record.
CONSENSUS: The public is favoring the Spurs by a slight margin (55 percent to 45 percent). The early consensus on the total is under 199.5 which may have something to do with the snail's pace that the Spurs played at Saturday night against the Warriors.
NBA: Streaks, Tips, Notes
Sportspic.com
San Antonio at Charlotte
Every team has that one team where it's always a struggle. That's the case for the Charlotte Hornets when it comes to the San Antonio Spurs. In seventeen meetings the result has been one win for the Bugs with a money-burning 5-11-1 record against the betting line. Going against Spurs might be considered sacrilege by some but the Spurs may lack focus after dealing NBA Champion Warriors a loss Saturday night.
Not suggesting Spurs drop this one outright but could get stung at the betting window. Spurs have struggle cashing last fifteen off a win going 6-9 ATS and are a cash-burning 1-4 ATS last five off a win vs a team off a loss. Additionally, Bugs have been solid bets at home recently vs teams with a winning record cashing six of seven tickets.
Monday's NBA Essentials
By Tony Mejia
VegasInsider.com
Spurs (-6.5, 199.5) at Hornets
Following Saturday night's impressive win over Golden State, the Spurs will look to become the second team to win 60 games this season by winning their seventh straight.
San Antonio has won 20 of 22 games and will look to complete a season sweep of the Hornets, who they beat 114-94 on Nov. 7. San Antonio's win over Golden State draws them within three games of first place in the Western Conference and will see them twice more. We'll see if there's any hangover on San Antonio's end after winning such a big game on Saturday night.
Charlotte has the third-best home record in the Eastern Conference and will be looking for its 40th win tonight, attempting to climb 10 games over .500. They're just 1.5 games behind first-place Atlanta in the Southeast Division, but come off a 101-93 upset loss at home against Denver on Saturday night. The Hornets haven't lost consecutive games since Jan. 29. They haven't lost back-to-back home games since Jan. 2. The 'under' has prevailed in three of the last four Charlotte contests.
Bucks at Pistons (-7, 205.5) – 7:35 ET
Detroit finds itself on the outside looking in, one-half behind the pace for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They have won consecutive games and are in the midst of a nine-game homestand that they're currently 2-1 on.
The Bucks are just 9-26 on the road this season and have turned the reins of the offense to Giannis Antetokounmpo with Michael Carter-Williams sidelined for the season. The Greek Freak has posted four triple-doubles since the All-Star break and is averaging 20.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.6 assists in March.
The 'over' has prevailed in five of the last six Detroit games. This is the fourth and final meeting between these Central Division rivals. The Pistons have won two of the first three, winning the last encounter in Milwaukee 102-91 on Feb. 27.
Wizards at Hawks (-6.5, 206.5)
Washington looks to even its record at 35-35 and remains a few games behind the pace in the race for an East playoff spot despite a four-game winning streak that is tied with Toronto as the longest in the conference behind surging Atlanta.
The HHawks have won five straight, which is currently the longest streak in the NBA behind San Antonio. Atlanta has won eight of its last nine games, winning four of the last five by double-digits. It has covered the number in 10 of the last 12 games.
This will be only the second meeting of the season between these Southeast Division squads, who last saw one another on Nov. 7 when the Hawks held serve at home. They'll face each other two more times between now and the rest of the season, also squaring off on Wednesday and in the regular-season finale in DC on April 13. Both teams are relatively healthy, but Washington wing Alan Anderson will be a game-time decision with an ankle injury.
Warriors (-12, 232) at Timberwolves
The Warriors will look to bounce back from scoring a season-low 79 points in San Antonio on Saturday night. Stephen Curry shot just 4-for-18, including 1-for-12 from 3-point range. Golden State hasn't lost consecutive games all season. Curry dropped 46 points on the Timberwolves in Oakland when the teams sqaured off on Nov. 12, hitting 15-for-25 shots, including eight 3-pointers.
The Timberwolves will visit Oakland one more time on April 5. Minnesota just closed a four-game road trip that featured wins over OKC and Memphis. They'll be home for five of the next six games. Karl-Anthony Towns, currently the leader in the Rookie of the Year race, is averaging 17.9 points and 10.3 rebounds and scored 32 points, his second-highest output of the season, in Friday's 116-111 loss to Houston.
Golden State remains on pace to shatter the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' all-time record for wins and will be wrapping up a three-game road swing. They'll be home for eight of the next nine contests after this one. Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala remain out of the lineup for the defending champs.
Grizzlies (-2, 205) at Suns
Despite the massive amount of injuries they've suffered through, Memphis enters this one 10 games over .500, good enough for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference. Mike Conley remains out for a few weeks with an Achilles injury, which means he leads a list featuring Marc Gasol, Brandan Wright, Chris Andersen, P.J. Hairston and Jordan Adams as injured Grizzlies players. Matt Barnes will also miss tonight's contest due to suspension after trying to barge into the Milwaukee locker room the other night to confront John Henson. Zach Randolph returned from a knee injury to spark an upset of the Clippers on Saturday night, becoming the oldest player (34) in NBA history to record his first triple-double. Together with Tony Allen and Vince Carter, Z-Bo will look to lead the Grizzlies to consecutive victories for the first time since March 4. They had lost four consecutive games prior to the upset.
Brandon Knight is back for the Suns and is averaging 17.4 points since returning from an injury that sidelined him for nearly two months on Jan. 21. Phoenix is 2-3 with him back in the lineup, as his presence makes life easier for young shooting guard Devin Booker in addition to the rest of the group. The Suns have won the first two meetings between these teams, both of which have taken place over the last month. Considering Phoenix is 19-50, going 3-0 against a playoff team would be quite the accomplishment. The 'under' has prevailed in three straight Phoenix games.