Posted on 5/15/2008 3:56:52 PM

NBA Online Basketball Betting - San Antonio’s Last Stand

By BetUS Staff

The defending champions are on the brink of elimination, but the NBA betting public thinks they’ll live to fight another day. The San Antonio Spurs are 7.5-point sports betting favorites at press time (-320 on the moneyline) for Game 6 of their Western Conference final against the New Orleans Hornets.

New Orleans is ahead three games to two in this best-of-seven online betting series; the home team has won each contest straight up and against the sports betting NBA spread. The lowest margin of victory was 11 points. Chalk it up to the playoff intensity that an encouraging home crowd can give a team. It’s a rule of thumb that the home-court is worth four points, but New Orleans was favored by 4.5 points in Game 5. That means the value of playing at home has grown to six points.

The easy choice for online sports betting fans and handicappers is to follow the trend and take the Spurs in Game 6. But no trend should be followed blindly; some of the circumstances have changed for Thursday’s matchup.

The main difference in favor of New Orleans is that David West (sore back) appears healthier after a poor Game 4 performance. His 38 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks on Tuesday night foiled San Antonio’s plan to stifle the Hornets’ secondary scoring. However, Tyson Chandler suffered a bruised left foot in Game 4; he’ll play Thursday, but he might find it more difficult to defend Tim Duncan – something that backup center Melvin Ely has not done well in this series.

The Spurs are at full health; Duncan is showing no effects of the flu bug that reportedly slowed him down in the first two games of this series. But New Orleans adjusted their double-team assignments and held the two-time MVP to 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting. Gregg Popovich will have something drawn up to counter New Orleans; the NBA odds are certainly in his favor.

Tip-off from the AT&T Center in San Antonio is at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. EPSN has the television rights. The total for this matchup is 184 points. The over is 2-1-1 in this series – the total was off the board for Game 4 – and 23-22 this year when the Spurs play at home.

You’ll find the latest 2007-2008 NBA odds and lines in the best online sportsbook, BetUS.com. Betting on NBA player and game props makes every aspect of the game exciting. Join BetUS.com today to bet on the NBA and make online sports betting work for you!