Game On: Hornets at Spurs

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Published: October 30, 2010

Tonight is a battle between the San Antonio Spurs 1.0 organization and the San Antonio Spurs 2.0 organization.  Demps vs Buford.  Williams vs Popovich.  Paul(Wake Forest) vs. Duncan(Wake Forest).   The Spurs have only played a single game so far this season, and they won that one handily 122-109 vs. Indiana. (Side note: Collison went for 19 an 7 on 13 shots)

The Spurs did it in typical fashion, getting twenty points from each of its big three and finding three others to contribute as well.(Jefferson, Hill and Anderson that time)  The Hornets will need to find a way to limit those other contributions, and if they do, will have a good chance to win this game because the Spurs aren’t the defensive juggernaut they once were.  If the Hornets get some stops, they’ll have enough open looks of their own to win the game.

Matchups

At point guard, there is the usual battle between friends Parker and Paul.  I fully expect Parker to match Paul’s scoring numbers – but his all around game, defense, and ability to break a defense to pieces has never been a match for CP3.

On the wings, Jefferson and Ginobili will take on Ariza and Belinelli.  The Spurs have more scoring punch, and Ginobili is as good an all around wing player as there is in the league.  Still, if Belinelli can hit his open shots, and Ariza makes Ginobili work a little, this shouldn’t be a tremendous advantage for the Spurs.

Up front, Duncan is a monster, and he’s starting at center next to DeJuan Blair until import Tiago Splitter fights his way through a calf strain.  Duncan is fundamental and tough, and Blair is energetic and aggressive on the boards, if undersized.  This should be a good battle between them and West/Okafor, but I expect the Hornets to hold the scoring edge, and the Spurs to hold the rebounding edge.

That leaves the benches.  Right now, like Monty Williams, I don’t know what the best rotation is.  We’ll probably see the bench continue to be 6 deep until he settles on his rotation, and we’ll have to hope it continues to produce as it has the previous two games.  (32 points a game off the bench?  That’s a huge change from previous seasons when getting a score of points from the bench was a coup.)

Anyways, stick around to talk up the game.  Oh, and not to depress you, but I have the recap tonight.  My track record of recaps and games isn’t particularly shiny.

Other News:

Tony Parker signed an extension today that will make him a Spur through the 2011-12 season, meaning he and CP3 could both be free agents in the summer of 2012- the same season that Raymond Felton comes off the books for the Knicks. Food for thought.

The Vegas Zone

The line opened at 7.5 and has since moved to 8.5 points. 93% of the gamblers who are betting just on the money line are betting on the Hornets, who are +325. Meanwhile, when the points are factored in, 74% of gamblers are taking the Hornets plus 8.5.  The over/under for this game is 197.5, and over 60 percent of those betting are taking the over, which is surprising since the Hornets have not allowed an opponent to score 100 this season.  Last season the Hornets were swept by San Antonio and only covered the spread in 1 of the 4 games.

NBA 2K Simulation

So far, the NBA sim is 1-1, correctly predicting the Hornets victory over Denver while failing to come close to getting the Bucks game right. Let’s hope the sim is right tonight however, as it spit out a thrilling overtime Hornets victory that saw 6 players finish in double figures.

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