NBA Betting – Warriors Record Chase in Jeopardy vs Spurs
San Antonio Spurs at Golden State Warriors (-7, 209 o/u)
The NBA’s version of the Titanomachy is set for tonight. Instead of duking it out in Thessaly, the Titan-esque San Antonio Spurs (65-12, 26-12 Away) will visit the closest thing the NBA has to Greek gods, the Golden State Warriors (69-9, 37-2 Home), at Oracle Arena (10:30 PM Eastern).
The Warriors are having a season for the ages and still have a chance to record the best regular-season ever, besting the 72-10 mark established by the ’95-’96 Chicago Bulls. But, after an inexplicable home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night (124-117), the team has no room for error.
Golden State hasn’t lost back to back games this season. But, just a week ago, they hadn’t lost at home in 54 games; but a loss to the Celtics at Oracle ended that record streak, and now, with two home losses in the last three, doubts are manifesting around the once indomitable squad.
Coach Steve Kerr is doing his best to downplay the setbacks, though.
“It’s a miracle that we’ve gone this far without hitting a bump in the road,” said Kerr to the Associated Press. “This is to be expected. Every team goes through it. It’s just probably surprising for people out there and maybe even our own guys because this season has maybe come too easy for us.”
Golden State’s last quartet of games features two matchups with the Spurs and two with the Grizzlies. Luckily for Steph Curry and company, the Spurs don’t have much to play for at this point. They’re entrenched in second in the Western Conference and will likely rest some key players down the stretch.
That said, they’ve won four straight and six of seven, including a narrow 88-86 win over the Jazz on Tuesday. Kawhi Leonard led the team with 18 points and eight boards, but it was the defense, as usual, which spurred them to victory (pun intended); the Spurs held Utah to under 30-percent from three and forced 16 turnovers (committing just eight, themselves).
The line for tonight’s game opened at Warriors at -5, but moved to -7 quickly. The last time they met, the Spurs held the Warriors to a season-low 79 points, and Steph Curry went 1 of 12 from three-point land, scoring only 14 points on the night. San Antonio is also 6-2 ATS in their last eight visits to Oracle Arena.
Pick: Spurs (+7).
(Photo Credit: nikk_la (Flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/].)
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.
