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San Antonio Spurs vs. Phoenix Suns
Free Pick: Phoenix Suns -4
Courtesy of Mike Rose (Handicapperspicks.com)
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Conference Semifinal action picks up in the desert on Monday night where the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns will begin their battle for the right to play in the Western Conference Finals.

After dropping Game 1 in their quarterfinal series with the Dallas Mavericks, the Spurs rattled off three straight victories to steal home court and eventually won the series in six games.

Phoenix split its first four games with the Portland Trail Blazers before it punched its ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals by taking Games 5 & 6 with relative ease.

The trio of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker once again reigned supreme for the Spurs in their 1st round match-up with the in-state rival Mavericks.

The keys to success throughout their series with the Mavs was their ability to force turnovers and play stifling defense. They averaged just over six steals per game and held the Mavericks to 90 or less points in four of the six overall NBA playoff betting battles.

Phoenix got a stern test from one of the league’s best defensive teams in the first round of the playoffs. The Suns top ranked offense averaged 103.3 PPG in the series, which was almost seven-points fewer than their regular season average of 110.2 PPG.

When they surpassed the 100-point plateau, the Suns won all four games and went 3-1 ATS.

These Western Conference rivals met up three times throughout the 2009-10 regular season with the home team winning each game. Phoenix came out the pointspread victor though (3-0 ATS) after it covered the four-point spread at San Antonio falling 113-110.

This is going to be a very interesting series to take in for NBA bettors as the grizzled and experienced legs of the Spurs try to keep pace with the frenetic Suns offense. The Suns would love to play every one of their games well over the 200-point barrier, while SA would be ecstatic to keep every one of its opponents around 100-points.

Easier said than done; especially in this spot!

Phoenix let Game 1 get away from them in the quarterfinals against Portland. They ultimately lost 105-100 as lofty 8.5-point favorites allowing Andre Miller to have a monster game. Their shots wouldn’t fall evidenced by them shooting a pathetic 41.8 percent from the field.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs
Free Pick: Los Angeles Lakers +1 (March 24th 2010 – Big Al McMordie)
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At 9:30 pm, our complimentary selection is on the Los Angeles Lakers plus the point over San Antonio. The Spurs are playing their best basketball of this not-so-young season, so from coach Gregg Popovich’s perspective, it’s “better late than never.” They went into Oklahoma City on Monday and upset the Thunder, and that qualified as their biggest win of the year — even more than their 20-point blowout of the Lakers earlier this season. And that’s because San Antonio rebounded from a heartbreaking overtime loss at Philips Arena on Sunday, so they showed a lot of mettle in winning at OKC when playing on the road without rest. But even though the Spurs are finally playing well, they will be without Tony Parker tonight, and his quickness over Derek Fisher was one of the few, if any, matchup advantages the Spurs had over the Lakers. Surely, Duncan is, at best, a break-even proposition against Gasol. And San Antone has nobody who can guard either Lamar Odom or Kobe Bryant. The Lakers only “negative” in this game is that they might lack the requisite motivation, given they’re firmly locked into the #1 seed out west. But Los Angeles generally gets up to play the Spurs, and we’ll take L.A. as the small underdog here. Good luck, as always…Big Al McMordie.

San Antonio Spurs vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
Free NBA Pick: Under (March 8th 2010 – Big Al McMordie)
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At 7:05 pm, our complimentary selection is on the ‘under’ in the Spurs/Cavaliers game. On Friday night, this looked like a heckuva match-up on paper. The Spurs have just started to play their best basketball of the season, while the Cavaliers have been the league’s best team. But then, on Saturday, San Antonio’s 2nd leading scorer, point guard Tony Parker, broke a bone in his hand, and will miss the rest of the regular season. And coach Mike Brown decided to rest LeBron James against Milwaukee (in part because of a gimpy ankle), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that James may sit out tonight’s game vs. the Spurs as well. With all this star power (and fire power) on the sidelines tonight, the rotations will be a bit messed up, and I look for the offensive efficiency of each team to suffer a bit. After all, both teams run their offenses thru Parker and James. Let’s play on the Cavs and Spurs to sail ‘under’ the total tonight.