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NBA Pick: 713 San Antonio Spurs @ 714 Portland Trail Blazers
Rating: 3 units - Single Dime Play
Pick: Portland Trail Blazers (-8) (Play up to -9)
Odds: -103 / 1.97 on Pinnacle Sports OR -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker OR -103 / 1.97 on Matchbook
This is a revenge game for Portland, given that San Antonio beat them in last year's playoffs. The Spurs will be without Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Splitter and Mills tonight, five players who were a big part of last year's playoff series between these two teams. With so many absences as well, San Antonio's bench is now depleted and it has to rely on their starters a lot. The problem is that Leonard is also banged up and he only returned last night to the court, having played 37 minutes against Denver. On the other hand, Green is slumping on his perimeter shooting, with 32.1% 3pts on San Antonio's last five games.
If that wasn't enough, Portland is now a quite tough matchup for San Antonio as well. The Blazers' perimeter defense has been great this season and they will put a lot of pressure on the Spurs' outside shooters. Joseph is no Parker when it comes to lead the team's offense, so I believe San Antonio's offense will indeed struggle tonight. On the other side, San Antonio's defense has been pretty average lately and they are especially struggling to stop team from making threes against them. Given that Portland is one of the team outside shooting teams in the league, I believe that San Antonio's defense will also struggle tonight. Given the edges that Portland will have in both defense and offense tonight, I believe they will have a double digits win and so, I'll take them in here.