The NBA Playoffs continue on Wednesday night and and I will have a free pick in Game 5 between the Portland Trailblazers and the Memphis Grizzlies which will take place at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. The game has a start time of 9:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Current Vegas betting odds have Memphis listed as 5.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 190.
Analysis: The Portland Trailblazers are a beat up team, but they did snap their 6 game losing streak to take care of an equally beat up Memphis team on Monday night to force the series back to Memphis for game 5. The Blazers have nod been a good team away from home where they have gone just 19-24 on the year. Portland has gone just 8-20-1 ATS in their last 29 Conference Quarterfinals games and 0-7 ATS in their last 7 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600. The Trailblazers have scored 100.7 ppg on 44.6% shooting overall and 35.3% from long range on the road this year. Defensively they have not been great away from home, where they have allowed 101.2 ppg on 44.4% shooting overall and 35.9% shooting from long range.
The Memphis Grizzlies came into the playoffs as a beat up team and they played that way in game 3 as they were without PG Mike Conley. Still the Grizzlies played very tough in the game before succumbing to the Blazers by a score of 99-92. Now the scene shifts back to Memphis for game 5 and the Grizzlies have been very good at home, where they are 33-10 on the year. Not sure if Conley will play this game. Memphis has gone 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record and 7-1 ATS the last 8 in the series. The Grizzlies have scored 99.4 ppg on 45.6% shooting overall and 34.9% from long range at home this year. Defensively they have been very god at home, allowing just 92.7 ppg on 45.8% shooting overall and 33.4% shooting from long range.
Pick: Going with the Under in this game. The Memphis Grizzlies really play stifling defense at home and the Blazers have had issues scoring at this venue as they have scored just 88 ppg in their 4 games played in Memphis this year. The Grizzlies allow just 91.8 ppg at home for the year, while Portland scores just 94.8 ppg on he road. We should not get allot of points from Portland in this one. I also feel that Memphis scoring will be down as well. They are not an uptempo team and should not get caught up in that type of game as they know they must play their style of ball or Portland could steal one here. Very hard to see this one getting past 185 points.
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