Spurs Cruise by Lakers, Cover Spread
The San Antonio Spurs were nine-point favorites against the injury-riddled Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, and they flexed their muscles in a convincing 102-91 victory that wasn’t even as close as the score indicates.
“I thought we played two pretty good games on the defensive end of the court back to back,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That was our goal at the beginning of the season, and we did it for most of the year, as I said, until maybe the last three weeks of the season it dissipated. We got it back for these two games.”
The star of the game was Spurs point guard Tony Parker, who scored 28 points and paced the Spurs offense. When Dwight Howard left the game in the third quarter in foul trouble, Parker easily got to the hoop and scored at will against the depleted Lakers.
“You see Tony tonight, and that’s probably the best part of the whole game,” Duncan said. “He’s getting his rhythm back. He felt good tonight. He shot the ball well tonight. He looked like Tony of midseason tonight, and that’s great for us.”
Both Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard struggled for the Lakers. L.A. can’t get anything done at either end of the floor when their two bigs struggle as they did on Wednesday night. Gasol only shot 5 for 14 from the field and 1 for 6 in the second half.
“I didn’t get into a good rhythm out there,” Gasol said. “This first half was better, but in the second half, I struggled with my shot. I can’t be short on my shots; fatigue kicked in a little bit and I’m fighting through some stuff myself physically. But at this point, we’re in fight mode; we’ll fight through whatever is on the table. Try to stay alive in this series and fight for our lives.”
Meanwhile, Manu Ginobili and Matt Bonner continued their stellar play off the bench, chipping in for 23 points total.
“He’s playing very well right now,”Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said of Ginobili. “There’s not a whole lot of adjustments; we try to push him to his weak hand and try to get up in him, but at some point, you just have to man up and just do the best you can.”
“[Bonner] was a key player for us today,” Ginobili said. “He was very active defensively. Of course he’s giving Dwight a big advantage in size, strength and quickness, and I could keep going. But he did a great job getting around him, fronting him from behind.”
I originally thought the Lakers could pound the Spurs down low with their size, but it’s beginning to look like San Antonio simply has too many offensive weapons for the Lake Show to keep up in this series. Here were some other betting trends from last night’s game, courtesy of OddsShark.com:
Los Angeles Lakers Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 6-4
Before playing San Antonio are 8-2
After playing San Antonio are 9-1
After a loss are 8-2
San Antonio Spurs Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 8-2
Before playing LA Lakers are 6-4
After playing LA Lakers are 6-4
After a win are 4-6
A few Lakers at Spurs trends to consider:
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of the LA Lakers last 8 games when playing on the road against San Antonio
LA Lakers are 5-1 SU in their last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the LA Lakers last 5 games when playing San Antonio
The total has gone OVER in 5 of the LA Lakers last 7 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of San Antonio’s last 8 games when playing at home against LA Lakers
San Antonio is 11-2 SU in its last 13 games at home
San Antonio is 5-1 SU in their last 6 games when playing LA Lakers
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of San Antonio’s last 5 games when playing LA Lakers
