Pro Hoops on Friday and we will see the San Antonio travel in state to take on the Dallas Mavericks. The game is scheduled for an 8:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised on ESPN. Currently the odds for the game have San Antonio favored by 1 point while the total sits at 205.5. Check out Sportsbook Spy to see who the Public is taking on all of today's games.
Free Analysis: San Antonio (34-11) is riding the league's longest current winning streak at six games after defeating New Orleans 106-102 on Wednesday despite missing Popovich and Duncan. Neither one made the trip to Dallas because Popovich remains ill and Duncan is bothered by a sore left knee. Assistant Mike Budenholzer will fill in again for Popovich, whose absence Wednesday certainly came as a surprise after he waited until two hours before tipoff to say he would miss the game. San Antonio made a franchise-record 20 3-pointers in a 129-91 win over the Mavericks on Dec. 23 with guard Danny Green scoring a career-high 25 points and matching a career best with seven 3-ponters. The outside game will be key again with Duncan out and will be bolstered by the return of guard Manu Ginobili from a hamstring injury. Ginobili played 17 minutes against New Orleans after missing the four previous games. “He looked good,” point guard Tony Parker said of Ginobili. “He didn’t go full speed. I think he was trying it and testing it. In Dallas, he’s going to get more aggressive.” Parker and Duncan were named Western Conference All-Star reserves on Thursday. San Antonio has won seven of the last nine meetings with the Mavericks.
The San Antonio Spurs have routed the Dallas Mavericks by 38 and 25 points in this season’s previous two meetings but Dallas is feeling positive it can turn in a much better performance when it hosts San Antonio on Friday. The Mavericks have won five of their last six games and are averaging 110.7 points over the last six games. veteran guard Vince Carter said he isn’t the least bit satisfied with the club still six games below .500. “I think we still have a long way to go,” Carter said. Point guard Darren Collison is averaging 16.5 points and shooting 68.2 percent from the field against the Spurs this season. He also has played well of late in general by averaging 15.1 points over his last 15 outings. Collison is meshing better with backcourt mate O.J. Mayo and coach Rick Carlisle sees a promising future for the duo. “In my 4 1/2 years here, I haven’t had this kind of collection of younger guys that have this kind of upside,” Carlisle said. Mayo is averaging a team-best 18.2 points while Collison is contributing 12.9 points and 5.2 assists. Dallas committed a season-low eight turnovers in Sunday’s win over Orlando and has registered 10 or fewer miscues in four of its last five games.
Free Pick: I am going with the over in this one. The Mavs have been on fire offensively recently, while the Spurs are not the same team defensively without Duncan and it showed as they allowed a weak New Orleans offense to put up 102 points on them in their last game. Dallas has averaged 110.2 ppg in their last 5 games and they have averaged 103.1p pg at home on the year. This is an offense that is clicking now and will be looking to score a ton here after getting blown out in their two games vs the Spurs this year. Offensively, without Duncan in there, the Spurs will look to run and shot the three a bit more in this one. The Spurs do average 102.8 ppg, while allowing 99.2 ppg on the road this year. Should be a fun run and gun game with much more offense than defense.
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