San Antonio Spurs at Orlando Magic Preview and Pick

NBA Basketball Betting Preview
San Antonio Spurs (40-25) at Orlando Magic (47-21)
Wednesday March 16th, 8:00PM Eastern

Betus.com betting line – Orlando -7, 194 O/U

The Orlando Magic currently own the 2nd best record in the Eastern Conference at 47-21 and if they keep the pace going they could easily lock up a number 2 seed in the playoffs. Orlando enters Wednesday night’s game against San Antonio fresh off of two days rest after a disappointing rare home loss to the Bobcats 96-89. However, the Magic prepare to rebound when they host the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday from Amway Arena. The Spurs are one of the teams that are right in the middle of a big playoff race in the Western Conference. In fact, the Spurs were on the outside looking in before a huge victory over the Heat on Tuesday. Despite the win, the Spurs not afford any losses and every game is becoming very critical. Add the fact, the Spurs lost star point guard Tony Parker for the rest of the season and it gives off the impression that San Antonio has their backs against the wall. However, the Spurs will still get the chance to keep their own hot streak alive on Wednesday in one of the toughest environments for a visiting team.

The Spurs have really developed some momentum over the past few weeks winning 8 of their last 9 games. In fact, their only loss was a mere two point loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland where it is nearly impossible for a visiting team to capture a win. The Spurs only own a 16-15 record on the road, but they are playing much better basketball as of late. San Antonio jumped all over Miami last night leading by as much as 18 points at the break. That was also the same Miami team that had won 6 of their last 7 before getting embarrassed by the Spurs.

Perhaps what is even more impressive about the Spurs recent surge on the court is that most of the firepower is not really coming on the offensive side of the court. Instead San Antonio is playing excellent defense as they have held their last 4 opponents to 88 points or less while failing to allow an opponent to reach the century mark in 8 straight games. Given those teams were not the most impressive quality of opponents for an 8 game stretch, but nonetheless they are still playing very well on the defensive side of the court. Manu Ginobili doused 22 points to lead the Spurs last night while George Hill added 16 points. Hill has actually played very well in Parker’s absence and is one of the big reasons the Spurs have not faltered despite losing their star point guard.

On the other side of the court, Orlando is also a fairly strong defensive team holding opponents to just 95.1 points per game. Center Dwight Howard leads the league with 2.74 blocks per game. Howard of course is the huge offensive force for the Magic on the boards as well as inside the paint. However, it will be critical that Howard keeps a hand in the face of Tim Duncan forcing the rest of the San Antonio team to work from the outside. Howard dropped 32 points in his last meeting with San Antonio and is currently averaging 19 points per game. Howard has also scored at least 27 points with 15 rebounds in each of the past two games. The question is how well the Spurs will defense keep Howard contained and frustrated when he gets the ball is his hands.

Before Sunday’s loss to the Bobcats, the Magic had won 8 straight games. In the loss to Charlotte, Vince Carter helped the cause with 20 points. Carter has surprisingly been consistent in somewhat of a resurgence type year for his career. Carter has actually averaged over 20 points per game in the last 5 ball games. The Magic have plenty of other strong shooters from Rashard Lewis to Mickael Pietrus as well as some hot hands from off the bench. When Orlando is shooting the ball well they are extremely tough to beat considering the number of dangerous shooters. However, this game will likely turn into a lower scoring slower paced game considering how the defenses have played. Therefore I would be fairly shocked if the over is reached.

Pick – Take the under 195