{"id":12376,"date":"2011-01-11T13:52:48","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T18:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12376"},"modified":"2011-01-11T13:52:48","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T18:52:48","slug":"unlikely-rivalry-san-antonio-spurs-at-minnesota-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/unlikely-rivalry-san-antonio-spurs-at-minnesota-timberwolves-12376\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely Rivalry: San Antonio Spurs at Minnesota Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs AT Minnesota Timberwolves
\nJan 11th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -6
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 207
\nCurrent Total: 206
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 San Antonio -250 \/ Minnesota +210
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 San Antonio -295 \/ Minnesota +235<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kevin Love will probably have another big game tonight, but will it be enough?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Spurs haven’t had problems with many teams this year, but for some strange reason, Kevin Love and the Timberwolves have given the Spurs fits this year and for a game between a 9-29 team against a 31-6 team, NBA Oddsmakers have set the line remarkably close.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinnesota has been tough for us. As far as I\u2019m concerned, they\u2019re 24-6 or something,\u201d Popovich said. \u201cThey play their butts off and they run good stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Love takes some optimism but with a shred of disappointment on the matter.\u00a0 He desperately wants to win, but just doesn’t have the personnell to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty frustrating because we match up against them pretty well. We\u2019ve taken them to three very very tight games; an overtime game,\u201d said Love, \u201cWe owe them one on Tuesday, hopefully we can get that one and not sulk on (Sunday\u2019s loss).\u201d<\/p>\n

Love has averaged 25 points per game and 19 rebounds per game against the Spurs this year, both higher than his season averages of 21.2 and 15.7.\u00a0 While he’s undoubtedly not 6’10” and Duncan is every bit of 6’11”, Love has managed to use his undersized body to box out even the biggest big men, and will probably have near 20 or over 20 rebounds tonight.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

San Antonio is 16-3 SU in their last 19 games and the total has gone OVER In 5 of their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 They are 11-4 SU in their last 15 raod games and the total has gone UNDER In 6 of ther last 9 games against the Wolves.\u00a0 San Antonio is 5-0 SU in their last 5 against Minnesota and 5-0 SU in their last 5 road games, as well.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 8 of the last 10 games on the road in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Minnesota is 1-5 SU in their last 6 games and the total has gone OVER in 6 of their last 7 at home.\u00a0 They are 8-17 SU in their last 25 home games.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/p>\n

Tim Duncan vs. Kevin Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Duncan still has some left in the tank, but not enough to slow down energizer bunny Kevin Love, who is ferocious on the boards and can play all over the court on offense (despite being a rugged power forward he hits 43% from three).\u00a0 Duncan will have to play a “vintage Duncan” game to have any chance against Love tonight, but even if he can’t contain Love, it may not matter.\u00a0 Love and Beasley have been going wild against every team and because they don’t have much help offensively, it hasn’t mattered.\u00a0 As mentioned above, Love has had his way with the Spurs and will probably again tonight, but will this be the night that Minnesota doesn’t just come close against San Antonio, but actually wins it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs AT Minnesota Timberwolves Jan 11th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -6 Current Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 207 Current Total: 206 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 San Antonio -250 \/ Minnesota +210 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 San Antonio -295 \/ Minnesota +235 The Spurs haven’t had problems with many teams this year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[12,677,141,3350],"class_list":["post-12376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-kevin-love","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-tim-duncan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12377,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions\/12377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}