Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs continues on Friday night and we will see Houston Rockets travel to the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas to take on the Houston Rockets in game 3 of their best-of-seven series. The game has a start time of 9:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Vegas odds have the Blazers listed as 3 point favorites, while the total sits at 215.5.
Stat Packs: The Houston Rockets came into the series as the 4th seed in the West, and were a solid 33-8 at home for the year, but they as the scene shifts to Portland, the Rockets find themselves in a 2-0 hole after Portland took both games played in Houston. Houston has now won just 2 of their last 7 games. Houston went just 21-20 on the road this year, but they are 5-1-1 ATS the last 7 meetings in Portland. The Rockets are a high scoring team that averages 107.8 ppg on 47.1% shooting (5th). Not a good FT shooting team, as they hit just 71.2% from the line, which is 28th in the league. In the playoffs it has been Dwight Howard that has led the offense, with 29.5 ppg, while James Harden has scored 22.5 ppg, but the problem with Harden has been his 29.8% shooting from the field in the 2 games. Defensively the team has struggled this year, allowing 103.4 ppg overall and 106 ppg on the road.
The Portland Trailblazers came into this series with one goal and that’s to take at least 1 of 2 in Houston. Well they bettered that by winning both games to take a 2-0 record back to Portland where they have gone a stellar 31-10 on the year. Portland has now won 11 of their last 12 games and may be playing the best ball of any team in the playoffs right now. Portland comes in averaging 107 ppg overall, including 107.7 ppg on their home floor this year. This is a very good FT shooting team as they have ranked 1st in FT shooting (81.5%) for the year. Lamarcus Aldrige has been awesome in the playoffs so far, leading the team in scoring at 44.5 ppg. Damian Lillard (24.5 ppg), Wesley Mathews (13.5 ppg) and Nicolas Bartrum (10.0 ppg) round out the DD scorers for the team. During the regular season, the Blazers rank 22nd in points allowed (102.8 ppg) 11th in defensive FG% (45.1%) and 11th in 3pt defense (35.5%).
Pick: Boy these teams have put up some points in this series, but one of the games was because of OT and Portland home games tend to be a bit lower scoring than Houston home games. Portland does average 107 ppg ion their home floor, but they also allow just 100.1 ppg at home and Houston is not shooting the ball all that well right now. They do not want to go down 3-0 so you may actually see them look for the good shot in this one rather that push, push, push tempo. The Rockets do score and allow 106 ppg on the road, and that's ok cause neither team should put up more than 108 points in this one.
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NBA Free Picks: Houston Rockets vs Portland Trailblazers Betting
What pro basketball bettors need to know about Houston Rockets vs Portland Trailblazers on Friday (4/25/14) - a free pick from Pregame.com's Ken Thomson with host Marco D'Angelo.