Tip-off: Tuesday, 7:00 p.m. EDT
Line: San Antonio -4, Total: 194

The San Antonio Spurs come into Tuesday night looking to turn their recent luck around and start playing good basketball heading into the playoffs. As we saw Monday night from the UConn Huskies, the regular season can be forgotten if a team starts playing well at the right time.

San Antonio snapped a six-game losing streak on Sunday, beating the Suns 114-97. The losing skid was the Spurs longest in 14 years. San Antonio thought it would cruise into the playoffs as a No. 1 seed, but now the Spurs are only 2½ games up on the Lakers with five games remaining. The Spurs desperately need Tony Parker (17.6 PPG) to play well and be a leader on the court. Parker shot 2-of-11 and only scored seven points on Sunday, but was helped out by George Hill (11.5 PPG) who went 10-for-16 and scored 29 points. Hill has been very inconsistent, scoring five and six points against Houston and Boston last week, but dropped 27 and 30 points on Portland and Memphis the two games prior.

The Atlanta Hawks find themselves pretty secured as the fifth seed, being four back of the fourth-place Magic, and four games up on Philadelphia with five games to play. Atlanta ended a four-game win streak Sunday with a 114-109 loss to the Rockets, but extended its ATS win streak to six games. The Hawks allowed Houston to shoot 57.3 percent and put up 114 points. During Atlanta’s recent four-game win streak, it held opponents to 83.8 PPG and 42.6 percent shooting. Atlanta is ninth in the NBA in scoring defense (95.3 PPG allowed) and can really frustrate opponents with their array of athletes on defense. One of their best athletes is versatile forward Josh Smith (16.7 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 1.6 BPG), who sparks his team with his high-flying dunks, but also plays spectacular defense and is a strong rebounder. Smith will not play in Tuesday’s game because of a knee injury.

Even through the recent struggles, the Spurs are still 42-33 ATS (56%) and 24-13 ATS (65%) in road games. They also have been solid against good teams, going 21-17 ATS (55%) against teams with winning records. Atlanta is a subpar 37-40 ATS overall, 16-23 ATS (41%) at home, and 14-20 ATS (41%) against teams with winning records. The Hawks are also 2-7 ATS against Southwest Division opponents. With all trends pointing towards the Spurs, I’ll take San Antonio to win and cover in a rather large road victory. The FoxSheets provide two trends siding with the Spurs:

SAN ANTONIO is 26-13 ATS (66.7%, +11.7 Units) versus teams who make 6 or more 3 point shots/game on the season this season. The average score was SAN ANTONIO 105.2, OPPONENT 99.4 - (Rating = 2*).

Play Against - Underdogs of 3.5 to 9.5 points (ATLANTA) - poor foul drawing team - attempting <=24 free throws/game, good shooting team - shooting >=46% on the season. (177-108 over the last 5 seasons.) (62.1%, +58.2 units. Rating = 2*).

And this highly-rated FoxSheets trend expects the Under to occur on Tuesday.

Play Under - Any team (SAN ANTONIO) - after leading in their previous game by 20 or more points at the half against opponent after scoring 60 points or more in the first half last game. (66-29 since 1996.) (69.5%, +34.1 units. Rating = 3*).