San Antonio Spurs Playoff Preview

NBA odds makers rarely underestimate the San Antonio Spurs, and as the Spurs ruthlessly demolished Utah in the final game, the bookies will not be underestimating them in the 2008 playoffs.

There were plenty of newsmakers in the NBA’s Western Conference this year. Plenty of trades, plenty of headlines.

All precipitated by a team that deliberately made no headlines and seldom do. Until they pass out the Championship, that is.

That team is the San Antonio Spurs – the team everyone is scared of and the team the Lakers (with the Pau Gasol trade), the Suns (with the Shaq O’Neal trade) and the Mavs (with the Jason Kidd trade) are all trying to emulate.

Nobody does it better come playoff time than coach Gregg Popovich and his on-court holy trinity of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. And so it was no surprise last Wednesday night when, needing to win to secure home-court advantage, they destroyed the Utah Jazz in workmanlike fashion.

The playoffs began a night early for the Spurs and they responded in typical fashion.

The Spurs head into a first-round series with Phoenix, who beat them three of four this season. All four games went UNDER the total, according to the NBA playoff betting matchup report available at sportsinteraction.com. In fact, nine of the last 12 meetings have rewarded UNDER bettors.

But they have the comfort of knowing they beat Phoenix in last year’s playoffs, the controversial six-game series where Robert Horry decked Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire got suspended for standing up and growling from the bench.

That hip check (hey, Nash is Canadian, he can handle it) turned the series in favor of the Spurs. And it underscored how the Spurs do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Does that impact the NBA playoff odds on this series or on the futures basketball betting lines of the Spurs to repeat as champions?

They were not exactly ‘cover’ machines down the stretch, covering the spread on the basketball odds in just two of their final seven games. And they reeled off nine straight ugly ATS losses in March, according to the NBA playoff handicapping database at SportsInteraction.com.

Regardless, they have won 16 of their past 20 games straight up when they are favored and they will be chalk against the Suns.

How Duncan will deal with Shaq down low in Round 1, knowing that Stoudemire is also slashing and soaring through the paint will be an intriguing new variable.

On the other fronts, you have Nash and Parker dazzling at the point and Ginobili and Michael Finley challenging Grant Hill and Leandro Barbosa on the wings. Past the Suns, the West is tougher than ever.

San Antonio will really earn its Spurs – and make headlines – if they can beat the basketball betting odds again and repeat.