San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix Suns Game 3 Pick

NBA Playoff Betting Preview
San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix Suns (Spurs lead 2-0)
Friday, 10:35 pm Eastern – ESPN

SBG Global Opening Line: Suns  – 6.5 , Total 193

The Phoenix Suns may be in a desperate situation down 0-2 to the San Antonio Spurs but they still seem confident heading into game three on Friday night in Phoenix.  Many fans seem ready to abandon ship but head coach Mike D’Antoni believes in his team. “I’m on the ledge with them,” he said, “but I’m not going (to jump). I’m going to crawl back in, and we’re going to play Friday, and we’re going to bust them up Friday. That is our mind set. We still don’t have any doubt that we can win the series.” SBG Global reports that early NBA betting has the public taking Suns at Home.

Phoenix will not make any major changes in their strategy because they believe they easily could have won both games in San Antonio. “To be honest with you, we don’t want to make a whole lot of changes,” he said, “We feel good about the way things are going.”  Phoenix led in each of the first two games only to give them away in the second half. “We had a lot to feel good about in Game 1, and we had a great first half in Game 2,” the Suns’ Steve Nash said. “I think we’ve just got to tweak it a little bit, be a little bit smarter, a little bit tougher.” The Suns will probably be without forward Grant Hill on Friday. “If he’s not 100 percent, he won’t play,” D’Antoni said.
The Suns now need to win four of the next five versus San Antonio with Friday’s game being a must-win.  It may help if they start pushing the ball a little bit more. “We need to up the production,” D’Antoni said. “We need to hoist ‘em up, we need to run more, we need to move the ball a little bit better, and we need to play more carefree. We’re a little tight right now.”

SBG Global Current Line: Suns  – 6.5 , Total 194.5

The Spurs realize that they didn’t dominate the Suns in the first two games. “We didn’t beat anybody to death,” Spurs head coach Greg Popovich said, “We had to work out butts off, we had to have some good fortune, we had to play well down the stretch to win both games at home. They’re going home; they’re going to feel good about themselves, so we’ve got to be ready for that.” The Spurs know that the series can change quickly. “We can’t be satisfied,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve been in all kinds of situations. In 2004, we were up 2-0 against the Lakers and they came back. So we just have to realize 2-0 doesn’t mean nothing. We just did our job. We just won our two games at home.”  That mindset is something that many NBA teams don’t have.  They get overconfident after winning their homes games.  The Spurs have to guard against that. “I don’t think these guys will be complacent,” Popovich said. “One worries about it, it’s always there. There’s always a natural tendency to feel good about anything that you’ve accomplished. But I think our team is experienced enough to know that they haven’t accomplished anything yet, that the goal is way down the road.”

Here are the NBA betting stats for Friday’s game. The Spurs are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 Conference Quarterfinals games. The Spurs are 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games as an underdog. The Spurs are 4-12 ATS in their last 16 games as a road underdog. The Spurs are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 vs. the Pacific. The Spurs are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 road games. The Spurs are 9-4-1 ATS in the last 14 meetings in Phoenix. The underdog is 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings between the two teams.

The Suns are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games as a home favorite. The Suns are 10-4-1 ATS in their last 15 games as a favorite overall.  The Suns are 12-5-1 ATS in their last 18 vs. the Western Conference.

The Over is 4-0 in the Spurs last 4 vs. the Pacific. The Under is 5-0 in the Spurs last 5 Friday games. The Over is 5-0 in the Spurs last 5 overall. The Over is 7-2 in the Spurs last 9 playoff games as an underdog. The Under is 6-2 in the Spurs last 8 Conference Quarterfinals games. The Under is 26-12 in the Spurs last 38 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.

The Over is 4-0 in the Suns last 4 Conference Quarterfinals games. The Under is 5-1 in the Suns last 6 Friday games. The Over is 10-4 in the Suns last 14 playoff games as a favorite. The Over is 9-4 in the Suns last 13 vs. the Southwest. The Over is 11-5 in the Suns last 16 games as a home favorite. The Under is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings in Phoenix between the two teams.

Should be another battle between these two teams, take the points Spurs +6.5 in a close game 3units.