Tonight, we are focusing on the cross-conference matchup between San Antonio Spurs and Washington Wizards, which will take place at Capital One Arena in Washington. It will mark the 2nd H2H fixture between the two sides, and the first time they will meet at Capital One Arena since March 28th 2018.
The visiting team, San Antonio Spurs are coming into this match after a 113:85 defeat against Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, which was their 3rd defeat in the last 5 fixtures. In addition to losing to Denver Nuggets, San Antonio also failed to defeat Sacramento Kings (106:113) and Charlotte Hornets (125:116). On the other side, Spurs managed to defeat Cleveland Cavaliers (116:110) and Atlanta Hawks (117:111). No matter their results that will follow, San Antonio Spurs are guaranteed a playoff spot this season which they earned with a 45-34 record so far, which puts them 6 points above 9th placed Sacramento Kings. While the results that are to follow won’t matter as far as finishing in the top 8 goes, San Antonio Spurs will still look to improve their seed position, just to avoid facing Golden State Warriors in the first round.
Washington Wizards come into the next fixture after a disappointing defeat against Chicago Bulls (114:115), however much like any other bottom of the table team, Wizards will look to lose as much as possible just to improve their seed position. As it stands now, Washington Wizards are 11th in the East with a 32:47 record and a 2-3 record in the last 5. Looking back at their performance in the last 5, Wizards won against Phoenix Suns (121:124) and Denver Nuggets (90:95), but failed to do the same against Los Angeles Lakers (124:106), Utah Jazz (128:124) and previously mentioned Chicago Bulls (114:115).
Washington Wizards won’t be able to count on Jabari Parker and Trevor Ariza. Robinson is still questionable. San Antonio Spurs on the other side have Belinelli listed as questionable.
Since there is no chance for Washington to reach the playoffs, they have been giving their younger players more minutes on the court while resting their star players. In their last match, we saw Bradley Beal left out for the whole 2nd and 4th quarter and we can expect something similar here. Their main goal now is to lose as many games as possible in hopes to improve their draft position, which is all Washington can achieve at this point. On the other side, we expect San Antonio Spurs to push for a win which could save them from the 8th seed and Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. We can see the motivation to win on the visiting side, and we believe Spurs will utilize their impressive defence to achieve just that. With strong defence on the away side and younger, less experienced squad on the home side, this one is bound to end in low numbers. Expect tonight’s match at Capital One Arena to end in low 220s.
Prediction: Under 225.50 points
Odds: 2.01 Pinnacle
