NBA Betting – Phoenix Suns at San Antonio Spurs
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Phoenix Suns at San Antonio Spurs (-5, 210.5 o/u)
The San Antonio Spurs (21-15) are in the middle of a crisis, losing six of their last seven games and looking older by the second. Tonight, the defending champs will host the surging Phoenix Suns (22-16) at the AT&T Center (8:30 p.m. Eastern) hoping to right the ship.
The Spurs can chalk up some of their recent struggles to injury. Over the last month, Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Anderson, and Tony Parker have all missed time.
The good news for San Antonio is that Parker played 13 minutes last Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons, and head coach Gregg Popovich said after the game that Parker is healthy.
“He wanted to play, but I’m being conservative,” Popovich said after the game. “He had 13 minutes. That’s good after sitting out as long as he did; make sure he doesn’t reinjure the thing.”
The bad news is that Leonard still has no timetable for return and Anderson remains questionable for tonight’s game.
On the other side of the floor, the Suns have won the four straight (over Philadelphia, Toronto, Milwaukee, and Minnesota) and ten of their last 12. The recent surge came on the heels of a six-game losing streak in mid-December.
The turnaround has been thanks to the offense. During the six-game slide, the Suns were held under 100 points four times. Over the last 12, the team has failed to reach the century mark just once (during a 99-90 win over the Knicks), and has scored over 110 points on eight occasions. The Suns are now the fourth-highest scoring team in the association, averaging over 107 points per night.
The Suns’ potent offense doesn’t rely on any one star. The team has five players averaging 14 points per game or more and no players averaging over 17 (Goran Dragic, 16.7 PPG; Eric Bledsoe, 16.5 PPG; Markieff Morris, 15.4 PPG; Isaiah Thomas, 14.7 PPG; and Gerald Green, 13.8 PPG).
Of course, with all the focus on offense, the Suns’ defense leaves something to be desired. Phoenix is third-worst in the league, allowing 104.5 PPG. With Tony Parker back, the Spurs should be able to capitalize on the Suns’ poor defending. Look for the defending champs to bump their slump and pick up their eighth win in 11 tries against Phoenix.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
