Projected line: San Antonio by 9 points
***TOP PLAY***
Once again, San Antonio's bench was amazing. Outside of DeJaun Blair's 17 points, Wednesday's game once again featured big performances from the Spurs' bench players! Matt Bonner matched Blair for a team-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers, Tiago Splitter dropped 16 and eight rebounds in yet another strong performance and Danny Green contributed 10 points as San Antonio's reserves outscored those of the Hawks 51-27. For a team that thrives through floor spacing, this game was once again proof that when one of the Spurs gets hot from behind the arc, the Spurs are difficult to beat. They also recorded 29 assists on great ball movement, with a great sign of that being the fact that they had just 3 ISO plays! Their defense was also outstanding by stopping both Johnson and Smith.
On the other side, Minnesota is coming from a big win at Dallas, where the matchups worked well for them, as expected. Ricky Rubio (17 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 7 turnovers) did a terrific job of getting the Wolves good looks both inside and out, but he hardly did all the work. Minnesota’s big men fought hard to get good interior position and create contact once they received the entry pass, and the perimeter players worked diligently for a slice of open floor, with Odom being completely outplayed, with 2-14 FG 5pts and 4reb in 16 minutes! Yi and Mahinmi weren't a factor and even though, they had little volume, Minnesota had 16-21 FG at the rim and 6-10 FG in offensive rebound plays! But it wasn't just Love who carried the team's frontcourt! Pekovic with 13pts 4-7 FG 7reb 4TO and Milicic 8pts 4-6 FG 7reb 7blk were also very good and gave the Mavs an embarrassing amount of trouble. The Mavs backcourt wasn't capable of being aggressive as expected and Minnesota took advantage of that, even though they used their starters a lot, especially Rubio with 46min and Love with 43!
For today, the scenario will be different. Unlike Dallas, San Antonio has a super sharp bench right now and Minnesota may compete hard, but with Rubio and Love playing so much minutes, Minnesota won't have legs midway the 4th quarter and that was evident on their home loss against Houston, when the Rockets 2nd unit with Lee and Dragic burned a tired Wolves backcourt and today the 2nd unit of the Spurs will have a super edge. Besides that, Parker will make Rubio work on the defensive end, nothing to do with the Kidd+West+Terry matchup, where all three players were passive on the offense! The Spurs interior defense has been improving lately with Splitter playing more minutes and really well! I don't expect a frontcourt domination from Minnesota tonight against the Spurs, especially in comparison to how they dominated Dallas.
Early in the season, Minnesota won at home by 106-96 against the Spurs, even though they were playing a back to back game after beating Dallas. However, that was a game where everything went amazing to Minnesota, with 57,7% FG, 12-21 3pts, W. Johnson 6-6 FG, Beasley 8-15 FG, Ridnour 7-10 FG, but now these three players are likely out for tonight (just Ridnour remains questionable). Minnesota shot 11-19 FG from 16-23 feet and 12-21 3pts in that game and it's basically impossible to see the Wolves repeating that tonight. San Antonio has edges on P&R Ball Handler and transitions, areas where the Wolves defense struggles, with #29 on P&R Ball Handler defense by allowing 0.86 PPP and #20 on transition defense by allowing 1.14 PPP!
The key in here will be the 2nd unit edge that the Spurs will have tonight. This is also a super tough spot for the Wolves, with Rubio and Love playing major minutes in their last game against Dallas and I expect Minnesota to come flat to this game after travelling so much lately: @UTA-MIN->@DAL-MIN! Threrefore, I believe San Antonio has every condition to win comfortably tonight and so, I'll take them in here in a Triple Dime Play!
***TRIPLE DIME PLAY***
Once again, San Antonio's bench was amazing. Outside of DeJaun Blair's 17 points, Wednesday's game once again featured big performances from the Spurs' bench players! Matt Bonner matched Blair for a team-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers, Tiago Splitter dropped 16 and eight rebounds in yet another strong performance and Danny Green contributed 10 points as San Antonio's reserves outscored those of the Hawks 51-27. For a team that thrives through floor spacing, this game was once again proof that when one of the Spurs gets hot from behind the arc, the Spurs are difficult to beat. They also recorded 29 assists on great ball movement, with a great sign of that being the fact that they had just 3 ISO plays! Their defense was also outstanding by stopping both Johnson and Smith.
On the other side, Minnesota is coming from a big win at Dallas, where the matchups worked well for them, as expected. Ricky Rubio (17 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 7 turnovers) did a terrific job of getting the Wolves good looks both inside and out, but he hardly did all the work. Minnesota’s big men fought hard to get good interior position and create contact once they received the entry pass, and the perimeter players worked diligently for a slice of open floor, with Odom being completely outplayed, with 2-14 FG 5pts and 4reb in 16 minutes! Yi and Mahinmi weren't a factor and even though, they had little volume, Minnesota had 16-21 FG at the rim and 6-10 FG in offensive rebound plays! But it wasn't just Love who carried the team's frontcourt! Pekovic with 13pts 4-7 FG 7reb 4TO and Milicic 8pts 4-6 FG 7reb 7blk were also very good and gave the Mavs an embarrassing amount of trouble. The Mavs backcourt wasn't capable of being aggressive as expected and Minnesota took advantage of that, even though they used their starters a lot, especially Rubio with 46min and Love with 43!
For today, the scenario will be different. Unlike Dallas, San Antonio has a super sharp bench right now and Minnesota may compete hard, but with Rubio and Love playing so much minutes, Minnesota won't have legs midway the 4th quarter and that was evident on their home loss against Houston, when the Rockets 2nd unit with Lee and Dragic burned a tired Wolves backcourt and today the 2nd unit of the Spurs will have a super edge. Besides that, Parker will make Rubio work on the defensive end, nothing to do with the Kidd+West+Terry matchup, where all three players were passive on the offense! The Spurs interior defense has been improving lately with Splitter playing more minutes and really well! I don't expect a frontcourt domination from Minnesota tonight against the Spurs, especially in comparison to how they dominated Dallas.
Early in the season, Minnesota won at home by 106-96 against the Spurs, even though they were playing a back to back game after beating Dallas. However, that was a game where everything went amazing to Minnesota, with 57,7% FG, 12-21 3pts, W. Johnson 6-6 FG, Beasley 8-15 FG, Ridnour 7-10 FG, but now these three players are likely out for tonight (just Ridnour remains questionable). Minnesota shot 11-19 FG from 16-23 feet and 12-21 3pts in that game and it's basically impossible to see the Wolves repeating that tonight. San Antonio has edges on P&R Ball Handler and transitions, areas where the Wolves defense struggles, with #29 on P&R Ball Handler defense by allowing 0.86 PPP and #20 on transition defense by allowing 1.14 PPP!
The key in here will be the 2nd unit edge that the Spurs will have tonight. This is also a super tough spot for the Wolves, with Rubio and Love playing major minutes in their last game against Dallas and I expect Minnesota to come flat to this game after travelling so much lately: @UTA-MIN->@DAL-MIN! Threrefore, I believe San Antonio has every condition to win comfortably tonight and so, I'll take them in here in a Triple Dime Play!
Pick: 5 units (Triple Dime Play) on 817 San Antonio Spurs (-1) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
No comments:
Post a Comment