NBA Betting Odds: San Antonio Spurs at Philadelphia 76ers

Added on Feb 11, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

A couple of the best pointspread teams in the league face off in Philadelphia on Friday night as the San Antonio Spurs take on the hometown Sixers. The Sixers are vastly improved under new coach Doug Collins and are smashing the NBA lines on a nightly basis. San Antonio has the best record in the NBA but is playing their sixth straight road game.

San Antonio Spurs at Philadelphia 76ers
February 11, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

We’ve got nothing but respect for the job that Doug Collins has done with this Philadelphia team this year which has translated into massive sports betting profits for their backers. The Sixers are 32-19 ATS overall and 21-12 ATS as an underdog. They’ve made a habit of sneaking up on Western Conference opponents this year going 10-5 ATS in those games. They enter this matchup having covered 8 of their last 12 games overall.

As we’ve noted in the past, the two things that bookmakers hate the most are a) teams that cover every game against the spread and b) teams that lose every game against the spread. We’re thinking that the ‘cat may be out of the bag’ relative to the Sixers ATS success based on the lines we’ve seen in recent games. It’s starting to look like they’re being ‘shaded’ to account for their strong ATS play which means they’re no longer as good a value as they were earlier in the season. Accordingly, that means we’re getting better value playing against them.

The Spurs are also a bad matchup for betting on the Sixers–Philly is a team that has done well by ‘sneaking up’ on opponents and particularly Western Conference foes who don’t see them regularly and have in the past considered them something of a ‘night off’. San Antonio didn’t get a 44-8 SU record by taking a ‘night off’ against teams they perceive as inferior. Spurs are 19-6 SU on the road and an equally impressive 17-7-1 against the spread. They’re 4-1 ATS as a road favorite of 3 or less and 11-5 ATS against non conference opponents. They’re continuing their torrid road play on their long annual ‘rodeo trip’–after dropping the opening game of the trip in Portland they’ve won four straight covering all. Sixers dropped 3 of 4 and 4 of 7 ATS which could be a sign of the aforementioned ‘shading’ of the lines against them. We’ll gladly back a solid Spurs team that has covered 7 of 8 laying 3 points with them at 5 Dimes.

Bet San Antonio Spurs -3 over Philadelphia 76ers