Portland vs. San Antonio Preview
SAN ANTONIO, TX (AP) – The San Antonio Spurs continued their domination of four opponents to open a season-high six-game homestand.
Their recent history with the Portland Trail Blazers has not been as successful.
Looking for their fifth straight win, the Spurs on Sunday night will try to end a five-game losing streak to the Trail Blazers, who are going for their first 5-0 stretch since March.
Oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGlobal.com have made the Spurs -8 point spread favorites for Sunday’s game against the Trail Blazers. Current NBA Public Betting Information shows that 56% of more than 102 bets for this game have been placed on the Spurs -8.
Trends show that Portland is 6-1 ATS versus San Antonio over the past three seasons.
After winning their 14th straight over Minnesota to open its homestand on Dec. 3, San Antonio (19-3) won for the seventh time in eight games against New Orleans before posting its 10th consecutive victory over Golden State on Wednesday.
The Spurs extended their run Friday with a 108-92 victory over Atlanta, which has lost 13 in a row in San Antonio.
Led by 18 points apiece from Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson, who hit a season-high five 3-pointers, six Spurs scored in double figures. That kind of balance has been a nightly occurrence for coach Gregg Popovich’s team, with five players averaging between 11.6 and 20.0 points.
“To have as many people scoring as we have scoring has been something that has helped (Ginobili, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan) not have to shoulder the load every night,” Popovich said Saturday.
“We’ve never had this balance, because we have guys coming off the bench (George Hill, Gary Neal, Tiago Splitter and Matt Bonner) that are contributing consistently, not just once in a while. It’s something we’ve started to count on.”
The Spurs can no longer count on a victory when they face Portland. Winners of 20 of 22 in this matchup from Feb. 11, 2003-Feb. 25, 2009, the Spurs have dropped five in a row – including two straight at the AT&T Center – to the Trail Blazers.
Portland (12-11) continues its four-game road trip after opening with a 101-94 win over Phoenix on Friday.
Coming off a 3-0 homestand and playing the second of a back-to-back, the Trail Blazers hit just 4 of 18 shots in the final quarter but held the league’s highest-scoring team to more than 14 points below its season average.
“We were running off fumes,” said coach Nate McMillan. “They sucked it up and made enough shots late to get this game.”
The Trail Blazers are holding teams to 91.8 points and 31.2 percent from 3-point range during their four-game run, but they could be tested against a Spurs team that is among the NBA’s best with 107.0 points per game while shooting a league-high 41.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Jefferson has been the Spurs’ biggest threat from long range over the last five games, hitting 15 of 28. Last season, Jefferson was 1 for 9 in three games versus Portland.
The Blazers’ Wesley Matthews, has been outstanding since McMillan reinserted him into the starting lineup seven games ago, averaging 20.0 points and shooting 45.7 percent (16 of 35) from 3-point range.
The backcourt matchups between Parker and Andre Miller and Ginobili and Brandon Roy should be intriguing as should the post battle between Duncan and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Duncan, who will play his 1,000th career regular-season game – the 94th player to reach that mark – is averaging 17.4 points and 11.2 boards in 23 home games versus Portland.
Aldridge scored 19.3 points per game with 8.7 rebounds as the Trail Blazers swept San Antonio last season for the first time since 1996-97, the year before Duncan was drafted.
Want More From TheSpread.com? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or Subscribe to Our News Feeds!