San Antonio at Dallas

As the #1 seed, the San Antonio has to be disappointed in their split at home in the first two games of this series. This is a talented, and disciplined team, and one that has a plethora of playoffs experience. The one thing that the Spurs know better than anyone else, is that when you take to the road in the playoffs you better bring your defensive "A' game. They certainly have executed that over the years, as the Spurs have played to a 47-31-2 mark to the UNDER in their last 80 road playoffs games. They have held those 80 opponents to 94.7 points per game. What may be equally important, is that they know they have to take the crowd out of the game. They have executed that as well as the first two quarters, or the first half, have been the lowest scoring two quarters by their opponents in the game on average over 80 occurrences. The Spurs have allowed just 46 ppg in the first half of the 80 played. In the Mavericks' last 27 home games in the first round of the playoffs have been equally impressive on the defensive end. They are 16-11 to the UNDER, holding their opponents to 46.4 ppg in the first half, and just 92.3 ppg for the game. These teams understand the value of defense, as well as coming out and making that the priority early in the game. I look for a strong effort on the defensive end, as these teams have both displayed that priority. Take both the first half UNDER, as well as the full game UNDER in this one.