New Orleans Hornets at San Antonio Spurs Betting Odds


Opening Line: Hornets +8 / Spurs -8 O/U 197

Time: 9:30 PM EST Friday March 5, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in an important Western Conference match up between 2 teams fighting to make the playoffs the San Antonio Spurs host the New Orleans Hornets. The Spurs are in the 7th position in the West and the Hornets are on the outside looking in being in the 10th position 5 games back of the 8th place Portland Trailblazers.

The Spurs have won 2 in a row and are 6-4 in their last 10 games and the Hornets have dropped 3 straight and are only 4-6 in their last 10 games.

This season the Spurs are 21-10 at home and 27-31 ATS and the Hornets are 11-20 on the road and 30-31-1 ATS.

The Hornets may have a chip on their shoulder in this game, as the Spurs laid a beat down them in New Orleans bating them by 14 points on Monday night.

The Spurs last game was their 106-92 win in the Big Easy over the Hornets on Monday while the Hornets lost their last game falling to the Memphis Grizzlies 104-100 on Wednesday night.

The Spurs have their work cut out for them in the next few weeks playing 15 games in the next 25 days, 5 back-to-back games, and they face Cleveland twice, the L.A. Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, and Orlando Magic in that stretch.

The Hornets have fallen out of the top 8 in the West since Chris Paul has been out with an injury, but his replacement rookie Darren Collison has played well averaging 22.2 ppg in his last 12 games. The Hornets need his offense tonight, but it may be more important for him to play good D on Tony Parker (16.6 ppg).

The Spurs have won 10 of their last 11 games at home against New Orleans.

The Hornets have a mediocre defensive team, but they may have to win with their defense, as their offense only ranks 20th in the league in opponents' points allowed (101.4 ppg).

The Spurs have been much better on the boards this season with the rebounding differential of +2.7 while the Hornets are only at -2.1 rpg. If the Spurs kill the Hornets on the glass tonight they will be in big trouble.

Emeka Okafor (10.7 ppg 9.3 rpg) has to rebound well tonight and he has to play good D on Tim Duncan (19.2 ppg 10.9 rpg).

New Orleans is 7-1-1 ATS in their last 9 road games, 5-1-1 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog of 5.0-10.5, and has an Over record of 8-1 in their last 9 road games.

San Antonio is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games, 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games as a favorite, and has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 games.

New Orleans is 1-6 ATS in the last 7 meetings in San Antonio.

Our Selection : The Spurs should win this game but we don't want to lay 8 points to a team that just got crushed at the hands of the Spurs on Monday night. So will make a play on the total here. San Antonio has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 games. New Orleans has an Over record of 8-1 in their last 9 road games. Take Over 197 points.


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