NBA Betting – Portland Trail Blazers vs Phoenix Suns
Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns (-6.5, 211 o/u)
The Phoenix Suns will look for their fourth win in a row when they host the Portland Trail Blazers this Wednesday at the US Airways Center (9:00 p.m. Eastern).
The Suns have beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers (107-100), Minnesota Timberwolves (110-99), and Los Angeles Lakers (115-100) over their last three, utilizing a diminutive lineup at times.
“We are ready to play small basketball when [coach Jeff Hornacek] calls our name, and we are all out on the floor together,” said Suns guard Isaiah Thomas. “I think it is dynamic. You don’t see it around the league, and it is something we love doing and hopefully we could do it a little more.”
Phoenix is 25-18 on the season and currently eighth inthe Western Conference; however, they are just 12-12 against Western Conference teams, and they will play ten of their next 12 against intra-conference foes.
Meanwhile, Portland has been on a bit of a skid lately, losing three in a row before downing the Sacramento Kings (98-94) in its last outing.
The losing streak started with a 100-94 home loss to the Clippers, in which the Blazers were three-point favorites. They followed that up with road losses to the Spurs (110-96) and Grizzlies (102-98).
The win over the Kings saw point guard Damian Lillard score 22 points and the Blazers rack up an impressive 16 steals (to Utah’s eight). After the win, Lillard reflected on the importance of limiting turnovers.
“That’s eight more possessions that we had that they didn’t,” Lillard said. “It came down to us just tightening up. We got a little more physical on defense, got a little more stingy, and offensively we valued those possessions.”
Looking at the trends, the Suns have won seven of the last ten against the Blazers, covering the spread in nine of those ten games. Making matters worse for Portland, the team will be without star forward LaMarcus Aldridge (hand) and center Robin Lopez (hand) for tonight’s game.
Portland’s lack of big men should play right into the hands of Hornacek, who will want to go small again. With Phoenix hot and Portland thin up front, take the Suns and lay the points (-6.5).
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
