{"id":12214,"date":"2011-01-05T18:38:20","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T23:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12214"},"modified":"2011-01-05T18:38:20","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T23:38:20","slug":"showdown-in-houston-portland-trailblazers-vs-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/showdown-in-houston-portland-trailblazers-vs-houston-rockets-12214\/","title":{"rendered":"Showdown in Houston: Portland Trailblazers vs. Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland Trailblazers AT Houston Rockets
\nWednesday, Jan 5, 2011 at 8:35 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Houston -5.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Houston -5
\nOpening Total: 197
\nCurrent Total: 195
\nOpening Moneyline: Houston -275 \/ Portland +235
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -210 \/ Portland +175<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kevin Martin is having his best year since his days in Sacramento<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston and Portland enter tonight’s game with similar records (Houston is 16-18 and Portland is 18-17) and are both battling for the 8th seed in the Western Conference, to earn the right to get ousted by San Antonio in the first round…Portland disposed of the Rockets at home last matchup but to say they have had their struggles on the road would be a bold understatement as they are 6-14 away from the friendly confines of the Rose Garden in Portland.\u00a0 Moreover, Houston is a pretty solid team at home, having gone 10-5 so far at home.<\/p>\n

Portland’s star shooting guard Brandon Roy’s career appears to be all but over.\u00a0 He has missed their last 9 games after doctor’s said he had literally no meniscus in his knees.\u00a0 That’s basically the equivalent of driving a car without any motor oil in the engine.\u00a0 In his absense, Aldridge and Camby have attempted to make up the scoring difference, but despite valiant efforts, the Blazers have continued to struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stay focused,\u201d coach Nate McMillan told the Trail Blazers\u2019 official website. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make plays down the stretch. When it\u2019s winning time, you have to make those plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland hasn’t won in Houston in nearly four years.\u00a0 Aldridge has played well in those games, averaging 22.0, but it hasn’t been enough.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Portland has lost 6 of their last 7 on the road and the total has gone UNDER In 7 of their last 9 in Houston.\u00a0 They have lost 13 of the last 19 games to the Rockets and the total has gone UNDER in 17 of their last 25 meetings at the Toyota Center.\u00a0 They have dropped their last 6 games there.<\/p>\n

Houston has won 6 of their last 9 games but are 0-3-2 ATS in their last 5 games.\u00a0 They have won 9 of their last 10 at home and are 7-2-1 ATS in those games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 15 of their last 23 hoem games but OVER in 4 of the last 6.<\/p>\n

Key matchups:<\/p>\n

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

With Roy out, Aldridge has become the focal point of the offense.\u00a0 He had 25 points and 11 rebounds against the Rockets on Sunday in a 15 point Trailblazer victory.\u00a0 Perhaps more impressively, he held Luis Scola in check, allowing the star power forward from Argentina only 10 points, half his season average, though he did hit 5 of his 8 field goal attempts.\u00a0 Despite only scoring 85 points, Houston had 5 players in double figures, but are going to need bigger games from Aldridge and the next-mentioned Kevin Martin to have any shot at winning.<\/p>\n

Wesley Matthews vs Kevin Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthews has been one of the few bright spots in this season for Portland.\u00a0 He may not be Brandon Roy, but he is a prolific scorer and is averaging 15.6 points per game and has had 6 games with 25 or more points.\u00a0 He only managed 14 last game against the Rockets, and scored only 10 in Dallas last game, after having a 30 point outing against the Jazz on December 30th.\u00a0 Kevin Martin is Houston’s leading scorer and is averaging 22.6 points per game, his highest average since his days in Sacramento (08-09 to be specific).\u00a0 Matthews is a pretty good defender, but if Martin can get hot from outside, it will be difficult to prevent him from getting to the basket and to the line, where he averages 8.2 attempts a game, hitting an outstanding 89%.<\/p>\n

The two matchups listed above will probably be the two that determine the game.\u00a0 They include the four leading scorers in the game and all four are capable of big games.\u00a0 Whichever tandem goes off for the most will probably lead their team to victory.\u00a0 NBA oddsmakers have understandably set the line in Houston’s favor given Portland’s horrible track record at the Toyota Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland Trailblazers AT Houston Rockets Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011 at 8:35 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Houston -5.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Houston -5 Opening Total: 197 Current Total: 195 Opening Moneyline: Houston -275 \/ Portland +235 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -210 \/ Portland +175 Houston and Portland enter tonight’s game with similar records (Houston is 16-18 and Portland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[831,2800],"class_list":["post-12214","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\/12214","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=12214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12216,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions\/12216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}