Golden State at San Antonio NBA Spread, Free Pick & TV Info

It’s arguably the most important game left in the NBA’s regular season on Wednesday night when the Golden State Warriors visit the San Antonio Spurs. If the Spurs win, they have a good shot at being the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs. A Warriors win all but locks that up. The Spurs are likely to be slight NBA spread favorites.

Golden State at San Antonio NBA Spread, Free Pick & TV Info

Only 9 games remain on the Dubs regular season schedule, but the week ahead won’t be an easy one.

The Weekly Dish » https://t.co/Z9S6r6KexY pic.twitter.com/H4ojBQt03h — GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) March 27, 2017

When: Wednesday, March 29, 9:30 PM ET Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio TV: ESPN Stream: WatchESPN Radio: Golden State / San Antonio NBA Odds: Spurs favored by TBA

Why Bet on Golden State?

This will be a tough second of a back-to- back as the Warriors were in Houston on Tuesday. Kevin Durant (knee) will have minutes restrictions if he is cleared to return to the court. It is unlikely that he’ll be cleared before the week of April 3, but the Warriors remain hopeful that Durant will be available to play by the end of the regular season April 12. “It’s something we’ll consult the training staff on,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I imagine we’ll ease him back by playing him shorter minutes to start, so he can build up his rhythm and his conditioning.” The Warriors’ nationally televised game Wednesday in San Antonio will have at least one notable difference from the last time they faced their biggest Western Conference threat: This time around, Kerr won’t sit his core players. “I’m not planning to rest anyone in San Antonio on the back-to- back because we’re flying in from Houston,” Kerr said. “This is a normal schedule.” Kerr received national attention when, in the finale of an eight-city, 13-day odyssey March 11 that spanned nearly 13,000 miles, he rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala for a prime-time game in San Antonio broadcast on ABC. With much of its normal rotation watching from the bench, Golden State slogged through a 107-85 loss. Golden State is ranked 1st in offensive rating (113.0) and tied for 1 st with the Spurs in defensive rating (101.0). The Warriors have a league-best net rating of 12.0, the next team, the Spurs, have a 8.5 net rating. The Warriors have dished out 30 or more assists a franchise-record 45 times this season and are 44-1 in those games. No other team has more than 15 30-assist games this season (Denver). Golden State has recorded 17 35-assist games this season (rest of the NBA has a combined 23).

Why Bet on San Antonio?

Despite NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s imploring the league’s owners in a memo last week to become more involved in the decision-making process with regard to resting players, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said such involvement could create “a slippery slope” capable of undermining relationships inside organizations. Popovich is the guy who started all this resting of stars. He has rested a total of six players for a combined 19 games, including Danny Green, who sat out the club’s 106-98 victory Saturday night over the New York Knicks. On the verge of closing out his 21st season with San Antonio, Popovich is the longest-tenured coach with the same team in all of the four major professional sports, and said he has always had the blessing of ownership with regard to basketball decisions. This season the Spurs have held their opponents to 98.4 points-per- game (2nd best in the NBA), giving San Antonio their 22nd straight season allowing fewer than 100.0 points, which is the longest run in NBA history. The Spurs are 19-8 this season when they are behind at the half, which ranks as third best in NBA history. San Antonio leads the league in three-point percentage (.393). This is also gives them the fourth-best long-range average through 73 games in Spurs history as the best is when they went .417 from beyond the arc in 2000-01. The Spurs have the best defensive rating in the league (101.0). The Spurs are 2-0 against the Warriors this season. In the first meeting, the Spurs defeated the Warriors 129-100 in both team’s season openers at Oracle Arena. Kawhi Leonard was a perfect 15-for- 15 from the free throw line and led the team with 35 points. Durant posted a double-double and led the Warriors in points with 27 points (11-18 FG) and 10 rebounds. In the in the second matchup, San Antonio downed Golden State 107-85 on 3/11 at the AT&T Center with both teams missing multiple starters. San Antonio won 33 consecutive home games against the Warriors from the start of the 1997-98 season up until 4/10/16 when they dropped a 92-86 decision to Golden State for their only home loss on the 2015-16 season.

Golden State at San Antonio Free Pick: San Antonio Spurs

San Antonio sweeps the season series – which won’t matter in the least in the playoffs.