Portland Trailblazers at New Orleans Hornets Betting Odds


Opening Line: Blazers -2.5 / Hornets +2.5 O/U 193.5

Time: 8 PM EST Saturday March 27, 2010 on NBA TV

Tonight in the Big East the New Orleans Hornets host the Portland Trailblazers. Chris Paul is back in the lineup for the Hornets, but it may be too late, as making the post season is a major long shot. The Blazers can eliminate the Hornets with a win tonight. The Blazers are playing well as the season draws to a close, as they are coming off a win and are 8-2 in their last 10 games. New Orleans is coming off a loss and is 3-7 in their last 10 games.

The Blazers will likely make the playoffs unless they implode in the last couple of weeks, but they need to finish the season strong to improve their playoff position. Currently the Blazers hold the 8th spot in the West trailing 7th place San Antonio by ½ game. The Blazers would like to leapfrog the Spurs for the 7th position to avoid playing the Lakers in the 1st round of the playoffs.

This season the Hornets are 22-13 at home and 33-39-1 ATS and the Blazers are 19-16 on the road and 39-31-2 ATS.

In their last games the Blazers looked impressive in beating the Dallas Mavericks 101-89 on Thursday night while the Hornets lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-92 on Wednesday night.

The Blazers have been killed by injuries this season losing both of their centers to season ending knee injuries. However, they have won 5 in a row and 10 of their last 12 when their starting lineup is Marcus Camby, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Andre Miller, which will be the lineup this evening.

Chris Paul (19.8 ppg 10.9 assists per game) did not have a good 2nd game back in the Hornets last outing with only 5 points and 7 assists. In his last game against the Blazers he struggled as well only scoring 3 points on 1/8 shooting.

With Paul out rookie Darren Collison played well and even though he is not starting he has averaged 16.5 ppg and 7.5 assists per game in his last 2 games.

New Orleans is not a good team on the boards with a rebounding differential of -1.8 rpg. The Blazers are at +2.0 rpg and they have Marcus Camby, who ranks 4th in the league in rebounds (11.6 rpg). The Hornets have to keep him from dominating the glass tonight and giving Portland 2nd chance opportunities.

Portland is a much better team on D, as they rank 5th in the league in opponents' points allowed (94.9 ppg) while New Orleans only ranks 21st (102.4 ppg).

Betting Trends

Portland is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games as a road favorite of 0.5-4.5, 11-4-1 ATS in their last 16 road games, and has an Over record of 6-1 in their last 7 road games.

New Orleans is 3-10-1 ATS in their last 14 games, 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 games as an underdog, and has an Over record of 4-0 in their last 4 games as an underdog of 0.5-4.5.

In 7 of the last 9 meetings between these 2 teams the total has gone Under.

Our Selection : Take Portland -2.5.


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