NBA Betting – Warriors Look to Close out Blazers at Home

Portland Trail Blazers at Golden State Warriors (-12.5, 217.5 o/u)

He may have played only one game over the last 15 days, but unanimous NBA MVP Steph Curry showed that gold doesn’t rust as he led the Golden State Warriors (7-2 SU, 5-0 Home) to a crazy Game 4 win, pushing the Portland Trail Blazers (5-5, 1-4 Away) to the brink of elimination. The Warriors will try and finish the job in Game 5 tonight at ORACLE Arena (10:30 PM Eastern).

Curry’s performance in Game 4 was ridiculous: something straight out of a movie. A film you probably won’t watch because it doesn’t make any sense. The Warriors were down by 16 points when he was thrust into action after Shaun Livingston was ejected for the first time in his career. The back-to-back MVP finished with 40 points on the night, 17 of them scored in the overtime of the 132-125 win.

“I figured he’d find his stroke and make a few shots, but that was crazy,” coach Steve Kerr told the Associated Press. “Once he got going, he didn’t look tired.”

The Portland Trail Blazers have been good enough to compete against the Warriors for four games, but they haven’t been able to find ways to close out games. Now they are facing elimination in a building where the Warriors are 44-2 this season.

“We played really well in Game 3 and got the win, Game 2 we played really well, and we let that one slip away and then [Monday] we played really well again,” guard Damian Lillard told the AP. “They’re a championship team. We competed with them. We’re right there, we were one or two stops from winning the game. We let another one get away.”

The Blazers are playing way better than anyone could’ve expected them too, especially given how much they rely on the backcourt of Lillard and C.J. McCollum to carry this team. But while they could get within striking distance of a Curry-less Warriors team, with him back in the fold, this series is all but over. The only question is: will they cover?

Well, the Warriors are 4-1 ATS in their last five after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game and 7-0 ATS in their last seven home games. The Trail Blazers are 1-5 ATS in their last six road games vs. a team with a winning home record.

Pick: Warriors (-12.5).

(Photo credit: Noah Salzman (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)