San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trailblazers Betting Preview
Opening Line: Spurs -2 / Trailblazers +2 O/U 194
Time: 10:30 PM EST Thursday February 4, 2010 on TNT
Tonight in a Western Conference match up of a couple teams that have not been playing well lately the Portland Trailblazers host the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams are only 4-6 in their last 10 games, but the Spurs are coming off a win and now only trail the Dallas Mavericks by 2 games in the Southwest Division while the Blazers lost their last game and trail the Denver Nuggets by 5 games in the Northwest Division.
This season the Blazers are 17-9 at home and 26-21-2 ATS and the Spurs are 9-9 on the road and 23-22-1 ATS.
In their last games the Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings 115-113 last night while the Blazers lost to the Utah Jazz 118-105 also last night.
The Spurs have lost 4 straight games against the Blazers.
The Blazers will be without the services of star Brandon Roy (23.1 ppg), as he will miss another game with an injured hamstring. In the last match up between these teams Roy missed that game as well, but the Blazers still won.
Jared Bayless (9.7 ppg) has played well in Roy's absence averaging 14.6 ppg on 49.1% shooting, but the Trail Blazers are only 3-5 since Roy has been out.
Tony Parker (16.9 ppg) may be back in the Spurs' lineup tonight after missing the last 3 games with a sprained ankle.
The Spurs have lost 6 of their last 9 games, as they head into this important road trip before the All Star break.
Tim Duncan (19.8 ppg 10.8 ppg) may have a huge game tonight, as the Blazers are without centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla, who are both out for the season with knee injuries. Juwan Howard (5.6 ppg 4.9 rpg) will have to play well tonight and keep Duncan from having a big scoring game and keep him off the boards.
With Roy out there is more pressure on the other Blazers to score, especially LeMarcus Aldridge (16.9 ppg) and Andre Miller (13.3 ppg).
The Spurs are legit on defense, as they rank 7th in the league in points allowed, but they have to play better then they did in last night's win when they gave up 113 points to the Sacramento Kings.
San Antonio is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games, 4-9 ATS in their last 13 road games vs. a team with a winning home record, and has an Under record of 6-2 in their last 8 road games.
Portland is 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games against teams with a winning record, 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games following a loss, and has an Over record of 10-3 in their last 13 home games.
Our Selection : Neither one of these teams has been playing overly well in recent weeks with both teams going 4-6 straight up. Both teams played last night and Portland will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights. The Trail Blazers have really taken it on the chin in the injury dept and will once again be playing with a short bench. That should play right in to the hands of San Antonio who have been lighting it of late scoring well into triple digits in 3 of their last 4. While we did consider looking at playing the Spurs plus the 2.5, we think the best value is in the total which Bodog currently has listed at 194. Take Over 194 points
Future Betting Odds
NBA Handicapping
Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics 5-28
The Magic have won 2 games in a row in this series and look to tie the series tonight, as the Boston Celtics hosts Orlando in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Magic have got back in this series and look to become the first team ever in the NBA to come back from a 3-0 deficit. The Celtics are small 3.5 point favorite at Bodog tonight when they try to close out this series at home.