San Antonio Spurs at Atlanta Hawks Betting Odds


Opening Line: Spurs +3.5 / Hawks -3.5 O/U 194

Time: 8 PM EST Sunday March 21, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in a non-conference match that is important because of playoff positioning the Atlanta Hawks host the San Antonio Spurs. The Hawks are coming off a win, are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and are in 4th place in the East only ½ game back of the streaking Boston Celtics. The Hawks would really love to snag the 3rd seed in the playoffs, as that would mean they would avoid playing Cleveland in a possible 2nd round match up.

The Spurs are also coming off a win and they are 8-2 in their last 10 games. They are currently in the 7th position in the West only trailing Phoenix and Oklahoma by 1 game and leading the 8th place Portland Trailblazers by ½ game. They only trail 4th place Utah by 2.5 games so if they finish the season well they can move up and host a 1st round playoff series, but if they sputter they are in danger of being the 8th seed and having to play the defending champion L.A. Lakers in the 1st round.

This season the Hawks are 24-7 at home and 39-30 ATS and the Spurs are 16-16 on the road and 34-33 ATS.

In their last games both teams played on Friday night and the Hawks beat the Charlotte Bobcats 93-92 and the Spurs blew up beating the Golden State Warriors 147-116.

The Spurs have won 8 straight games against the Hawks.

This is a pretty even match up, as the Hawks rank 8th in scoring (102.3 ppg) and 11th in opponents' points allowed (97.5 ppg) and the Spurs rank 14th in scoring (101.3 ppg) and 7th in opponents' points allowed (96.2 ppg).

The main weakness of the Hawks is they are a little thin inside and C Al Horford (14.2 ppg 9.5 rpg) and PF Josh Smith (15.8 ppg 8.8 rpg) have to play good defense on Tim Duncan (18.3 ppg 10.3 rpg) not allowing him to control the glass and have a big scoring game.

The Spurs have not really missed Tony Parker (16.5 ppg) since losing him for the regular season with a hand injury since backup George Hill (11.9 ppg) and Manu Ginobili (15.8 ppg) have stepped up their play.

San Antonio is a much better team on the boards, as they have a rebounding differential of +3.3 rpg and the Hawks are in the negative at -0.2 rpg. The Hawks have to hit the boards as a team in this game.

Josh Smith and Joe Johnson (21.4 ppg) have to have good games and shoot the rock well.

Betting Trends

San Antonio is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 road games, 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games, and has an Under record of 7-1 in their last 8 games as a road underdog.

Atlanta is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 home games, 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games as a home favorite of 0.5-4.5, and has an Over record of 9-3 in their last 12 games.

San Antonio is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against Atlanta.


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