San Antonio at Los Angeles

The Spurs have played seven consecutive UNDERs in the playoffs and now with their backs to the walls, they know the only way they can come out of this one in the win column is to match the intensity of the Forum crowd and the Lakers. There is no way the Spurs win here in a shootout and they know that. Expect "caged animal" defense from San Antonio as they fight for their lives. The Lakers, after 20 of 21 games over 100 points, have now seen the intensity of the Spurs defense, as they have managed a high of 101 in this series. The other three games resulted in 89, 84 and 93. In the Duncan era, this team especially gets fired up defensively when coming off a loss. It's their comfort-zone. When San Antonio is off a loss, they are 130-74 to the first-half UNDER over the past decade. The past two seasons they are 16-6 UNDER in the first-half revenging a home loss. The Lakers are 7-0 to the first-half UNDER at home when the total is in this range (95.5-100.5) this season. We will watch defense prevail, and back the first-half UNDER here.