San Antonio Spurs vs New Orleans Hornets Preview

Added on Mar 28, 2009 by sbworld in

The San Antonio Spurs (48-24) travel into New Orleans to take on the Hornets (44-27) this Sunday night and this game has major playoff implications on the line considering that if the season were to end today, these teams would be the first round matchup.

Both are members of the Western Conference’s Southwest Division which the Spurs currently lead by a game and a half over the Houston Rockets with the Hornets not far behind at only 3.5 games back.

Skybook has the betting odds up with the Hornets favored by 1.5 points and a betting total of 178.5.

These teams have met up twice this season with the home teams winning and covering the point spread once apiece with the most recent meeting coming at the end of January in which the Spurs won 106-93. This time around the playing time of some important players may make the game a bit different then earlier in the season, however.

Spurs’ guard Manu Ginobili is finally back from injury after missing a good chunk of the season and he looked incredible in his return last time out against the Clippers. In the 111-98 San Antonio win, Ginobili played sparingly but packed the stat sheet in an impressive fashion and it will be interesting to see how much playing time he gets in this game. It’s hard to read too much into the nice return considering that it was the Clippers who he did it against.

The Hornets are also dealing with a player coming back but it remains whether to be seen if guard Peja Stojakovic will be able to play after missing the last ten games with a back injury. The Hornets have gone under the total in 9 of the 10 games he has missed and it’s extremely important for New Orleans to get his distance shooting back. The Hornets are making just 28.4% from the 3-point arc over their last 5 games after making 36.8% this season with a healthy Peja.

New Orleans has only won 5 of their last 10 games with just 4 point spread covers over that time while the Spurs have won 6 of 10 but still only has 4 point spread covers. The home team has covered the point spread in 10 of the last 11 meetings between these two teams with the favorite being the right choice in 8 of the last 9. Both teams are playing with a day of rest where San Antonio has a point spread record of 22-15-2 on the season compared to 16-21-1 for the Hornets when playing with a day to get ready.

This is a very possible preview of the first round of the NBA playoffs so be sure not to miss a second of what should be an intense battle with much at stake.