SAN ANTONIO SPURS (32-11)
at PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (17-23)
Tip-off: Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET Line: San Antonio -6, Total: 194.5 The red-hot Spurs look for their fifth straight win when they visit the 76ers on Monday night. San Antonio is 3-1 ATS during its win streak, shooting an impressive 52% FG and 77% FT. The Sixers are wrapping up a four-game homestand on Monday, going 2-1 (SU and ATS) so far, thanks to an offense scoring 104.7 PPG on 50% FG. The Spurs are 14-9 SU (13-10 ATS) on the road this season, while Philadelphia is 11-9 SU (9-11 ATS) at home. The Spurs have won the past three meetings in this series (SU and ATS) all by double-figures, including a 109-86 drubbing on Jan. 5 in San Antonio. The Spurs will be without SG Manu Ginobili (hamstring), while Philly will likely be missing both SG Jason Richardson (knee) and C Kwame Brown (illness). Can the Spurs win comfortably on the road on Monday night? For the answer, connect to NBA Best Bets for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2012-13 season. StatFox Brian is 25-20 ATS (56%) on NBA Best Bets since Dec. 23, giving him a 53% ATS mark (64-58-3) for the season. StatFox Scott also has a season Best Bets mark of 53% ATS (57-51), with Gary at 52% ATS (50-47-4) for the season. The four experts are collectively 50.3% ATS (248-245-11) on Best Bets for the season. For NBA Totals, Scott is 6-2 in the past three days, boosting his impressive season NBA Totals record to 59-42 (58%). Brian has gone 6-3 in NBA Totals since Jan. 13. The Spurs are a very unselfish basketball team, leading the NBA in assists (25.2 APG), which has led to 104.4 PPG (3rd in NBA). PG Tony Parker (19.7 PPG, 7.3 APG) leads the team in scoring, and he has been sizzling in his past eight games with 21.9 PPG on 55% FG with 7.0 APG. Parker had a team-high 20 points, five assists and a +22 rating in the win over Philly on Jan. 5, and in his last trip to Wells Fargo Center last Feb. 9, he scored 37 points. PF Tim Duncan (17.3 PPG, 9.6 RPG) sat out of Saturday's win at Atlanta to get some extra rest, but he was great in the two games preceding that with 21.5 PPG on 55% FG and 9.0 RPG. Duncan had 16 points (7-of-10 FG), eight boards and four blocks in just 26 minutes of action against the Sixers two weeks ago. But the Spurs are a deep team with seven players scoring at least 8.9 PPG. PG Gary Neal (10.3 PPG) has been slumping in his past three games (7.0 PPG on 30% FG) and SG Danny Green (9.5 PPG) has also been cold over his past seven contests (6.1 PPG on 34.9% FG). However, the big men have shined, especially PF Tiago Splitter (10.0 PPG), who has six straight double-figure scoring games with 13.3 PPG on 34-of-48 FG (71%) and 8.0 RPG. SF Kawhi Leonard (8.9 PPG) has also been hot, making 55% FG on 11-of-23 threes over his past seven contests. Although Philadelphia's offense is clicking recently, this team scores just 93.2 PPG for the season (4th-fewest in NBA). PG Jrue Holiday (19.4 PPG, 9.0 APG, 4.2 RPG) continues to carry this team, especially in the past three games where he has 30.7 PPG on 55% FG and 6-of-12 threes, to go with 11.3 APG and 4.3 RPG. In Friday's overtime win against the Raptors, he scored a career-high 33 points (12 in OT) and dished out 14 assists. Although Holiday had eight assists and eight rebounds in the Jan. 5 loss in San Antonio, he scored just 11 points (5-of-15 FG) with five turnovers. SF Thaddeus Young (15.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG) also had a monster game against the Raptors with 27 points and 14 rebounds, giving him 19.0 PPG (53% FG) and 10.7 RPG in the past three seasons. SF Evan Turner (13.7 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 4.4 APG) continues to fill up the stat sheet in all categories, but he has shot very poorly in the past eight games with 10.3 PPG on 37% FG (4-of-17 threes). C Spencer Hawes (9.5 RPG, 5.9 RPG, 1.3 BPG) has been heating up with 11.5 PPG on 57% FG in his past six games, and he also had a huge performance off the bench against San Antonio two weeks ago, scoring a game-high 22 points (10-of-13 FG) with six rebounds.
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