{"id":12117,"date":"2011-01-02T15:19:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-02T20:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12117"},"modified":"2011-01-02T15:19:02","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T20:19:02","slug":"western-conference-battle-houston-rockets-at-portland-trailblazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/western-conference-battle-houston-rockets-at-portland-trailblazers-12117\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Conference Battle: Houston Rockets at Portland Trailblazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Portland Trailblazers
\nJanuary 2nd, 2011 at 9:05 PM EST
\nOpening Line: Portland -3
\nCurrent Line: Portland -3.5
\nOpening Total: 188.5
\nCurrent Total: 189
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Portland -165 \/ Houston +145
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Portland -170 \/ Houston +145<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Scola will be facing LaMarcus Aldridge tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both teams come into tonight’s game with 1 game winning streaks.\u00a0 The difference is that Houston has been doing well over the last 10, and Portland has not, really.\u00a0 Portland has won 5 of their last 10 and sit half a game of streaking Houston who has won 8 of their last 10.\u00a0 Since finding out that they are definitely without Yao Ming for the rest of the season, the Houston squad has rallied, with a new drive knowing they are not waiting on the lumbering giant to return.<\/p>\n

In the last 8 games, Houston has averaged 108.9 a game and received a strong showing from Chase Budinger (22 points last game) and D-League addition Patrick Patterson (14th pick overall, was called up) who scored 15 and contributed 10 boards.<\/p>\n

Portland is in a similar situation as Houston, finding out that they are “indefinitely” without Brandon Roy.\u00a0 The primary difference is that Portland is playing like they are awaiting a superstar’s return, while Houston is playing knowing that they won’t have theirs return.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Houston has won 6 of their past 7 and are 10-4-1 ATS in their last 15 games.\u00a0 They have won 13 of the past 18 games against Portland and the total has gone UNDER In 6 of the last 8 between the teams.\u00a0 Houston has lost 5 of their last 6 road games to Portland.<\/p>\n

Portland has won 5 of their last 7 but lost 3 straight before that.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 6 at home and they have won their last 5 at home.<\/p>\n

Key matchups:<\/p>\n

Luis Scola vs. LaMarcus Aldridge<\/strong><\/p>\n

With both teams missing their superstars, these two represent the best part of what is left for both teams.\u00a0 Scola is averaging 20 & 9 this year while Aldridge is going for 19 & 8.\u00a0 Both have excellent outside shots and are capable of creating their own offense.\u00a0 Aldridge had a strong showing last game, scoring 27 in an 11 point victory over Utah.\u00a0 He also had back to back 35 and 36 point games against Dallas and Minnesota.\u00a0 Scola has scored 20 or more in 5 of his last 9 games but has not scored 30 or more since December 7th.\u00a0 Aldridge isn’t known for being a particularly strong defender so Scola should have the ability to get 20+ tonight.\u00a0 Aldridge will give Scola problems, too, but overall their similar styles will probably negate one another overall.<\/p>\n

Aaron Brooks & Kyle Lowry vs. Andre Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both point guards are key to their offensive attack.\u00a0 Miller is a great creator for others and Brooks is a bit more shoot first, but creates shots for others with regularity as well.\u00a0 He’s recently been splitting minutes with Lowry, who does a little bit of everything and is a superior defender.\u00a0 Lowry has the speed to frustrate Andre Miller while he initiates the offense and Lowry plays passing lanes well too, resulting in a lot of steals and Rocket fast breaks.\u00a0 Brooks struggled last game against Toronto, going just 2 of 10 from the floor and scoring only 5.\u00a0 His speed though will enable him to have many more opportunities against the lead footed Andre Miller.\u00a0 Miller has the vet savvy in knowing how to defend quicker players, but sometimes that isn’t enough.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s NBA Pick should be a good one according to NBA oddsmakers.\u00a0 Portland is slightly favored, but Houston can’t be slept on.\u00a0 Even though they are going to be without Yao likely forever, they have a good amount of depth and some good young players (Budinger, Patterson, Jordan Hill) and will continue to improve as time goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Portland Trailblazers January 2nd, 2011 at 9:05 PM EST Opening Line: Portland -3 Current Line: Portland -3.5 Opening Total: 188.5 Current Total: 189 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Portland -165 \/ Houston +145 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Portland -170 \/ Houston +145 Both teams come into tonight’s game with 1 game winning streaks.\u00a0 The difference is that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[831,2800],"class_list":["post-12117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-houston-rockets","tag-portland-trailblazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12117","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12119,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12117\/revisions\/12119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}