{"id":11157,"date":"2010-12-01T14:52:44","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T19:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11157"},"modified":"2010-12-01T14:52:44","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T19:52:44","slug":"nba-experts-portland-trail-blazers-at-boston-celtics-betting-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-experts-portland-trail-blazers-at-boston-celtics-betting-predictions-11157\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Experts: Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics Betting Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics
\nWednesday, 12\/1\/10, 7:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 NBA TV
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -7
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 187
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 186<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Boston Celtics are a 7-point home favorite in hosting the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at the TD Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Portland managed just 11 points in the final 12 minutes of Tuesday\u2019s 88-79 loss at Philadelphia and the team is averaging just 15.3 points in the final frame during its four-game losing streak.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re getting open looks and we\u2019re not knocking down shots,\u201d said head coach Nate McMillan.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take care of the ball, you\u2019ve got to defend the ball and you\u2019ve got to score in this league.\u201d\u00a0 The Blazers .402 all-time winning percentage against Boston is its lowest mark among all NBA opponents.\u00a0 The team may have a prolonged scoring drought in facing a team that is holding opponents to 92.9 points per game on 43.9 percent shooting.\u00a0 Portland is 2-2 ATS when playing on back-to-back days this season and the NBA lines page has them as a road underdog.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers are currently on a four game road swing against Eastern Conference opponents, losing the first two games of the trip, but still hold a 4-3 record against the East this season.\u00a0 Portland is averaging 92.8 points in the second game of back-to-back sets compared to 102.3 in the first game.\u00a0 Overall, the team is 2-2 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season, with all of them coming on the road.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that the Blazers are allowing 10.8 points more per game against Western teams (100.7) than Eastern opponents (89.9)<\/p>\n

Boston may have a perfect 7-0 record against its own conference at the TD Garden this season, but its dropped four in a row at home to the West since a 94-86 victory over Sacramento on March 26.\u00a0 The Celtics have faced just one Western opponent at home this season, dropping a 89-84 contest to the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0 The squad won last year\u2019s series, 2-0, with Paul Pierce leading the team with an average of 16.5 points and shooting 50 percent from three-point range.\u00a0 Point guard Rajon Rondo was also instrumental in victory, averaging a double-double, scoring 14.5 points and dishing out 10.0 assists per contest.\u00a0 Boston is 0-3 ATS as a home favorite of 6.5 to 9 points this season.<\/p>\n

The Celtics outscored the Cavaliers 35-22 in the second quarter in their latest 106-87 win.\u00a0 Boston has been nicked up by injuries throughout the season and Rondo has stated that his foot troubles will likely last the entire season.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s the one who runs our team,\u201d said forward Kevin Garnett.\u00a0 The star point guard scored a season-high 23 points with 12 assists in the victory over Cleveland.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve been playing a lot of minutes,\u201d said Rondo.\u00a0 \u201cI want to play as many minutes as possible.\u00a0 If I\u2019m willing and my health is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Blazers are 1-5-1 ATS as a road underdog of 5.0 to 10.5 points, while the Celtics are 9-4 ATS with zero day\u2019s rest.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are off to a flying start and ready for you to join them today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics Wednesday, 12\/1\/10, 7:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 NBA TV Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 187 Current Total:\u00a0 186 Portland managed just 11 points in the final 12 minutes of Tuesday\u2019s 88-79 loss at Philadelphia and the team is averaging just 15.3 points in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,3622,764,846,830,197,3917,3693],"class_list":["post-11157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-eastern-conference","tag-kevin-garnett","tag-paul-pierce","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-rajon-rondo","tag-td-garden","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11159,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157\/revisions\/11159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}