Dallas Mavericks +8 (39-25) at Portland Trailblazers -8 (40-23) O/U 196 10 PM ET Wednesday March 11, 2009
By Jason Green at Predictem.com
Tonight the Dallas Mavericks travel to plat the Portland Trailblazers. Both of these teams are playing well, as each has won 2 in a row and are 7-3 in their last 10 games. Since Mark Cuban called out his Mavs they have responded with some great wins. The Blazers are in the 5th position in the Western Conference, while the Mavs have a comfortable 5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns for the 8th position in the West, but they want to move up in the standings in order to avoid the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Speaking of the Lakers, they have the best home record in the West, but only by one game over the Blazers.
This season the Blazers are 27-5 at home and the Mavericks are 15-17 on the road.
Online Sportsbooks have the Blazers as 8-point favorites with a total around 196. The Blazers are posted at -300 as home favorites and the Mavs are posted at +220 as away dogs.
The Blazers come into this game after an impressive, although costly, win
over the L.A. Lakers last night 111-94 losing Rudy Fernandez to an injury
after he was taken out with a hard foul going to the hoop. The high scorer
for the Blazers in that game was Brandon Roy going for 28 points on 8/18
shooting. On D the Blazers allowed the Lakers to shoot 36/82 for a FG% of
43.9%.
The Mavs come into this game after a big win over the Phoenix Suns 122-117 last night. The high scorer for the Mavs in that game was Dirk Nowitzki going for 34 points on 13/27 shooting. For the game the Mavs were shooting lights out going 47/88 from the field for a FG% of 53.4%. The Mavs were lucky to win, as their D was poor, allowing the Suns to shoot 48/77 for a FG% of 55.2%.
The Mavs rank 11th this season in scoring (101.1 ppg) and the Blazers rank 15th (99.1 ppg). The Blazers are a better defensive team, as they rank 8th in points allowed (95.1 ppg) and the Mavs rank 14th (99.5 ppg). Portland is one of the better teams this season on the glass, as they have a rebounding differential of +4.9 rpg and the Mavs are are +1.2 rpg.
This season the Blazers are 32-31 ATS and the Mavs are 30-33. In terms of Over/Under games this season the Blazers are 29-34 and the Mavs are 30-32-1.
On the injury front SF Josh Howard is day-to-day for the Mavs and C Greg Oden is Out and Rudy Fernandez is day-to-day for the Blazers.
The Blazers have won 13 straight at the Rose Garden, but that will not bother the Mavs who won in their last visit to Portland. The Mavs have won 7 of 9 games in Portland since 2004. The Blazers really need to get home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, as they have the worst road record (13-18) of the top 8 teams in the Western Conference.
Even though Dallas is in the 8th spot and the Blazers are in the 5th spot there is only 1.5 games separating the 2 in the standings.
The Blazers will have to step it up in their interior D with C Greg Oden Out because of injury. That will hard, as PF LeMarcus Aldridge (17.9 ppg) will have to leave the lane in order to guard Dirk Nowitzki (25.3) who can light it up from outside and take it to the hoop.
The Mavs have to hit the glass hard and not allow the Blazers too many second chance opportunities.
The Mavs can run led by PG Jason Kidd (9.2 ppg 8.4 assists per game), but the Blazers have to youth to keep up with them.
Brandon Roy (22.9 ppg) will have to have a good shooting night in order to open up the land for Aldridge to score down low.
The Mavs can sweep the season series between these 2 teams with a win tonight.
Jason’s Pick: At first glance, Dallas getting this many points is a no brainer. Once you look under the hood though, this game spells a BLAZER BLOWOUT. Riiiiiiiiip City!