Friday night NBA and we will see the Oklahoma City Thunder travel to the Moda Center to take on the Portland Trailblazers. The game has a start time of 10:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds have the Trailblazers listed as 6 point favorites, while the total is set at 207.
Analysis: The Oklahoma City Thunder come in off a tough 4 point loss in OT at Phoenix last night. he Thunder are now 3226 on tyhe year and if the playoffs started today they would be locked into the 8th seed in the West, but hey still hold just a 1.5 game lead over New Orleans and Phoenix for that last spot. OKC has gone 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games playing on 0 days rest, but just 4-13 ATS in their last 17 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600. Oklahoma City has been an average offensive team this year, ranking 12th in scoring (101.5 ppg), 20th in shooting, 25th in 3 point shooting and 16th in FT shooting. The defense for this team has been decent as they come in ranked 13th in points allowed (98.8 ppg), 2nd in defensive FG% and 8th in 3 point defense.
The Portland Trailblazers are off an impressive 111-95 home win over the Spurs on Wednesday night. The Blazers are now 37-19 on the year and have a solid 5.5 game lead over the Thunder in the Northwest Division. Portland has gone 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games playing on 1 days rest and just 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games vs the Northwest Division. The Trailblazers have been a good offensive team this year, ranking 9th in scoring (102.1 ppg), 19th in shooting, 7th in 3 point shooting and 1st in FT shooting. Defensively the Blazers have been very solid this year, ranking 6th in points allowed (97.2 ppg), 4th in defensive FG% and 2nd in 3 point defense.
Pick: Going with the Under in this game. Prior to last night's game, the Thunder had allowed just 94.4 ppg in their previous 5 games, while Portland comes in as the 6th best defensive team in the league allowing just 97.2 ppg and they have allowed just 93.3 ppg at home. The Thunder really struggled on defense last night and i expect them to lock it down at that end of the floor in this one vs a Portland team that averages just 101.9 ppg at home. The Thunder had a good offensive game vs Phoenix, but that defense is atrocious, and we also note that Westbrook did most of the damage in that game as he had 39 points on 38 shot attempts. The Under is 8-2 the last 10 meetings, while the Under is also 22-8-2 in Oklahoma City's last 32 vs. a team with a winning S.U. record and 20-6-2 in Portland's last 28 home games vs. a team with a losing road record. Portland home games have averaged just 195.2 ppg and that really makes it tough for me to see this one hitting 200 at all.
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Handicapping Tips: NBA Betting
Bryan Leonard and Steve Fezzik, from Pregame.com discuss some handicapping tips for betting the NBA.