San Antonio Spurs (28-19 23-22-1 ATS) vs. Portland Trailblazers (29-22 26-21-2 ATS) Rose Garden, Portland, OR 10:30 PM EST Thursday February 4, 2010 on TNT
by Jason Green at Predictem.com
Point Spread: Spurs -2.5/Blazers +2.5
Over/Under: 194.5
Tonight in a Western Conference match up between 2 teams that are 4-6 in their last 10 games the Portland Trailblazers host the San Antonio Spurs. The Blazers are coming off a loss and are in 4th place in the Northwest Division 5 games back of the Denver Nuggets. Even though the Spurs are not playing great ball they did win their last game and they only trail the Dallas Mavericks by 2 games in the Southwest Division.
This season the Blazers are 17-9 at home and the Spurs are 9-9 on the road.
The Blazers will have to play this game without star Brandon Roy (23.1 ppg), who has missed the last 8 games with a hamstring injury. Jared Bayless (9.7 ppg) has been legit in place of Roy averaging 14.6 ppg, but since Roy has been out Portland has only gone 3-5.
San Antonio has lost their last 4 games against Portland.
Spurs’ PG Tony Parker (16.9 ppg) will be back in the Spurs’ lineup tonight after missing the last 3 games with a sprained ankle.
The Blazers, especially Juwan Howard, have to play solid against Tim Duncan (19.8 ppg 10.8 ppg) tonight, as the Blazers are thin inside with both centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla both out with season-ending knee injuries.
Howard has his best days behind him, but he has been solid since becoming the de-facto starter. He has to keep Duncan off the boards and not allow him to score easy buckets in the paint.
Both Portland and San Antonio have great defensive teams, but last night the Blazers gave up 118 points in a loss and the Spurs gave up 113 in a win.
Last night in their last game the Spurs beat the Kings 115-113. In that game George Hill was the high scorer, starting for Parker, going for a career high 23 points on 7/16 shooting and he dished out 9 assists. For the game the Spurs shot well going 44/84 from the floor for a FG% of 52.4%. On defense the Spurs allowed the kings to shoot 45/86 for a FG% of 52.3%.
In their last game the Blazers lost to the Blazers were schooled by the Utah Jazz losing 118-105 last night. The high scorer for Portland in the game was LaMarcus Aldridge going for 27 points on 8/18 shooting and he also grabbed 12 boards. For the game the Blazers shot 37/87 for a FG% of 42.5%. The Blazers left their defense in the Great Northwest, as they allowed the Jazz to shoot 42/67 for a FG% of 62.7%.
This season the Spurs rank 11th in scoring (101.1 ppg) and the Blazers only rank 21st (98 ppg). On defense both teams are solid, as the Blazers rank 4th in points allowed (94.8 ppg) and the Spurs rank 7th (96.2 ppg). These teams have both been good on the glass this season, as the Spurs have a rebounding differential of +3.5 rpg and the Blazers are at +2.5 rpg.
According to the Sagarin NBA ratings the Spurs rank 11th (92.68) and the Blazers rank 12th (92.45).
San Antonio is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games and 4-9 ATS in their last 13 road games against teams with a winning home record.
San Antonio has an Under record of 6-2 in their last 8 road games and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 road games against teams with a home winning percentage greater than 60%.
Portland is 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games against teams with a winning record and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS loss.
Portland has an Over record of 10-3 in their last 13 home games and has an Over record in of 21-8 in their last 29 games.
On the injury front PG Tony Parker is day-to-day for San Antonio and SF Travis Outlaw is Out and Brandon Roy is day-to-day for Portland.
Jason’s Pick: Even though the Spurs are only a .500 road team this season they will be facing a shorthanded Blazers team tonight. Tim Duncan will have a big game tonight sending the Spurs to their 2nd win in row and the Blazers to their 2nd loss in a row.