Tuesday's Best NBA Bets
San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks (5, 207)
After San Antonio gave up 123 points in a loss to Orlando just before Christmas, the club knew it had to buckle down on the defensive end. So far, so good in that respect.
The Spurs have held three of their last four opponents to 82 or fewer points, playing under the total three times. Probably the most impressive of those wins came on New Year’s Day when the Spurs pounded the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-74 as a 6.5-point favorite.
"Hopefully it turns into a trend," Manu Ginobili told reporters. "We are very happy with the way we've played the last few games. Hopefully we just don't relax. We'll try to keep it up."
They’d better because they visit the NBA’s highest scoring team that averages more than 107 points on Tuesday.
"They want to score points," Duncan said of New York. "They want to get up and down, and we're going to have to try to control that."
We like San Antonio’s chances of becoming the first team in the league to 30 wins on Tuesday.
Pick: Spurs
Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies (1.5, 198.5)
Memphis might be one of one of the better teams in the league against the spread this season, but they’re still hard to gauge from one game to the next.
However, the Grizzlies hope their latest win will help build some confidence that will breed consistency. Memphis pounded the Los Angeles Lakers 104-85 as a 9.5-point underdog on Sunday. The win was just the team’s third win in eight games, but the Grizzlies have managed to cover five times over that stretch.
"We feel like we can play with anybody, and we should have a better record than we have," point guard Mike Conley, told reporters after the latest win. "We've laid eggs here and there, but we're working hard to become a more consistent team."
The win was a big step for a club that had just dropped games to New Jersey and Sacramento, but the Grizz will have their hands full again on Tuesday against the Thunder.
After Oklahoma City was blown out by the Spurs, it’s hard to go against them in this bounce-back spot.
Pick: Thunder
Spurs battle NBA odds at NY Knicks
By: Barry Daniels
The San Antonio Spurs will take their league-leading 29-4 record to the East Coast for a three-game road trip that will start with Tuesday’s contest against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Pete Korner, who makes the betting numbers for the majority of Nevada sports books as owner of Sports Club, has installed the Spurs as four-point road favorites in his overnight line. The ‘total’ is set at 208 points for the 4:30 p.m. PT tip.
The Spurs extended their winning streak to four games on New Year’s Day by thumping the Oklahoma City Thunder as 6½-point home favorites, 101-74. San Antonio has now captured 14 of its last 15 games, with the lone loss occurring two days before Christmas at Orlando.
The victory against the Thunder gave Gregg Popovich’s troops their fourth straight cover and raised their spread record to a sparkling 20-12-1. They are also a nifty 8-3 ATS in enemy territory. The ‘over’ is 8-4 in the Spurs’ last 12 road dates and 18-15 in their first 33 overall outings.
Tim Duncan scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds in less than three quarters to lead the Spurs past an Oklahoma City team that was playing the second half of a back-to-back situation.
No San Antonio starter played more than 28 minutes. George Hill scored 16 points and Tony Parker produced 14 points and 10 assists.
The Spurs took control with a suffocating defensive performance that started from the opening tap as they limited the Thunder to a season lows in scoring and field goal percentage in their worst loss of the season.
San Antonio has not allowed more than 92 points in any contest during its four-game winning streak. The stinginess has lifted the Spurs into 10th place defensively, allowing an average of 96.7 points per game. However, they are next-to-last in defending the three-point line by allowing the opposition to shoot 40 percent from beyond the arc.
Offensively, the Spurs rank fourth by scoring an average of 105.6 PPG. They are fifth in field goal percentage (47.1 percent) and second in three-point shooting at 40 percent. The Spurs are outscoring the opposition on the road by an average of almost five points per game (104.4 to 99.6).
The Knicks snapped their two-game losing skid Sunday by defeating the Indiana Pacers, 98-92. New York barely covered as seven-point home favorites, which raised the club’s spread record to 17-6 in its last 23 contests and 21-11-1 overall.
The Knicks are outscoring the opposition at home by an average of just one point per game (106.9 to 105.9), which is one of the main reasons they are just 9-7 ATS in their first 16 home dates.
The combined 190 points dipped below the 211 ½-point closing total, leaving the ‘under’ 9-7 in New York’s 16 home games.
New York defeated the Pacers despite missing 11 free throws and having forward Danilo Gallinari go down with a left knee sprain. The Don Best Sports injury report lists Gallinari as “questionable.”
Amare Stoudemire again took control of New York’s offense down the stretch. The big center scored on a floater, a drive and a 19-footer that helped turn a 90-90 tie into a winning advantage over the final three minutes.
Stoudemire finished with a game-high 26 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. He leads the NBA in fourth quarter scoring, averaging 7.3 points per game.
The Knicks lead the league in scoring with a 106.3 PPG average, and are second in free throw percentage at 79.5 percent. They are shooting 46.6 percent from the floor, which ranks seventh.
However, the Knicks are a poor 28th defensively by allowing a bloated 106.3 points per game.
San Antonio continues its road trip on Wednesday with a stop in Boston to play the Celtics. New York will embark on a four-game West Coast excursion starting with Friday’s contest in Phoenix against the Suns.
NBA RoundUp for 1/4
by Dan Bebe
Milwaukee Bucks @ Miami Heat (-11) with a total of 184.5
This one is simple to me. The Heat are winning games, and unless I think an underdog has a decent shot to actually win the game, I'm probably not going to take a shot. And even more importantly, this is the start of a home-and-home series between these two teams. As we've done all season, we'll just wait, bide our time, and cash a ticket on the rematch. Milwaukee does play Orlando in between the games with Miami, but I don't believe that changes much. Nice, short writeup here, since I AM PASSING on the side, and eying the UNDER, but barely.
San Antonio Spurs (-4) @ New York Knicks with a total of 208.5
The one thing the Knicks have been able to do most of the year is hang around, but this is definitely going to be one of their toughest tests. The Knicks are not in any sort of schedule spot, and situationally, this game is only important because of who the opponent is, so I'm hard-pressed to find a reason to like or dislike NY. On the Spurs side, the only angle worth noting is that they play in Boston tomorrow night on back-to-back, but given they've won and covered 4 straight heading into this contest, the Spurs are not a team I'm particularly interested in fading right now. I don't think I can back them either, just in case the guys are saving some juice for Boston, and the Knicks hit a meaningless 3-ball to lose by 3 points, but I sure as heck can't back the Knicks, given their poor defense and the Spurs' ability to score. ANOTHER PASS on the side, slight lean to the UNDER on the total.
Toronto Raptors @ Chicago Bulls (-10) with a total of 199.5
The Raptors have been pretty severely undermanned lately, with Andrea Bargnani missing time, and guys like Sonny Weems, DeMar DeRozan, Jose Calderon, and others all missing a game or two here and there. Thing is, this team can still shoot the rock, so if you're not paying attention, the Raptors can put a few points on the board, but if Chicago is even mildly focused, they should dominate this game. That's what we saw in the Boston-Toronto game. The opponent focused on defense, and Toronto got crushed. Chicago has that chance, and they can end the game early, but Chicago has also shown a propensity to let teams hang around for 3 quarters before turning it on late. It's tough to cover 10 points playing that way. This one is another coin flip, in my opinion, though I do lean just slightly to CHICAGO to finally cover a spread, and because of that, just a hair to the UNDER.
Oklahoma City Thunder @ Memphis Grizzlies (Pk) with a total of 198.5
Oklahoma City almost looks too easy at this number, don't they? Still, I wouldn't bet the Thunder just based on the opening line, as the Grizzlies are coming off one of their strongest defensive efforts of the season, and Oklahoma is coming off getting completely undressed in San Antonio, yet again. Last year, the Thunder seemed to have the Grizzlies pretty well figured out, and we've seen time and against Oklahoma laying the wood to teams off a straight up loss, so maybe this is just a favorable number on the Thunder after all. Neither team is in a particularly good or bad scheduling spot, so I'm riding on the assumption the Thunder don't take kindly to the ass-kicking they took in Texas, and I lean to OKLAHOMA and the OVER.
Portland Trailblazers @ Dallas Mavericks with a total of N/A
We still have no clue who is actually going to play for the Mavericks, but with Caron Butler going down for 2 months, and Dirk still questionable, calling them shorthanded is pretty accurate. Both of these teams have probably done their best work in the opposite spot of what we see tonight. Portland has been a machine at home, but awful on the road, and we all know about Dallas's road prowess, at least when they're healthy. Still, Dallas would seem to be deep enough to compete even without Dirk, and Portland is, seemingly, one of the few teams with the right type of guys to actually guard Nowitzki, even when he's healthy. I struggle to see how Portland can consistently score on Dallas, but then, I've been surprised before. Let's see where the line comes out, but I'm inclined to peek at DALLAS and the UNDER.
Atlanta Hawks (-6.5) @ Sacramento Kings with a total of 189
Don't look now, but Sacramento has actually covered their last 2 home games. Say what? Yeah, it's true - they've rebounded exceptionally well, so if the opponent isn't playing at least a decent game, then they're in for a contest. Unfortunately, Atlanta is actually starting to play a little better, and perhaps it's because Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford are both healthy, at long last, and Josh Smith is scaling back his outside jumpers. Atlanta also has a very tough game tomorrow night up in the altitude of Salt Lake City, so they're likely to really want this one before, perhaps, giving a half-hearted effort in Utah, knowing that is just a game not worth wasting 3 days' worth of energy just for a chance of winning. Still, despite all that, this is a very big spread for a road team that hasn't shown consistency away from their building, and believe it or not, the line inflation is enough to give me a tiny lean to the KINGS and the OVER.
Detroit Pistons @ Los Angeles Lakers (-13) with a total of 194
The Lakers are a disaster, the Pistons are coming off a game in Utah, and we know how they've been able to play zero defense on the back end of back-to-backs. Where do we wager on this one? The Lakers ATS streakiness may very continue, but against a team that doesn't play much defense, the Lakers could go nuts. It's the teams that outwork the Lakers that continue to give them problems, and the Pistons are not really known for their workmanlike attitude in 2010-11, not with the team being led by outside shooters, for the most part. This line might actually be where it should be. Detroit is on revenge from a Lakers win at the Palace, but let's be serious, half that arena was Laker-friendly, anyway. Do the Pistons really consider themselves good enough to have revenge? I doubt it, though certainly they'll want to win. Let's see how they perform in Utah, but without knowing, I'd take a small look at the LAKERS, but more interested in the UNDER.