{"id":12478,"date":"2011-01-14T09:38:29","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T14:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12478"},"modified":"2011-01-14T09:38:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T14:38:29","slug":"western-conference-showdown-portland-trail-blazers-at-phoenix-suns-nba-handicapping-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/western-conference-showdown-portland-trail-blazers-at-phoenix-suns-nba-handicapping-preview-12478\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Conference Showdown: Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns NBA Handicapping Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns
\nFriday, 1\/14\/10, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Phoenix Suns PG Steve Nash will look to lead his team to victory and avoid being swept in the 2010-11 season series against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Portland has played 22 of its 39 games away from the Rose Garden and many players are starting to suggest its taking its toll on the club.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been on the road a lot,\u201d said forward LaMarcus Aldridge.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been home a couple of games, but guys are still tired, bodies are still hurt.\u00a0 We have to suck it up and bounce back against Phoenix.\u201d\u00a0 The Blazers will have the advantage of playing tonight\u2019s game after having a couple of days to recharge after a 100-86 loss to New York on Tuesday.\u00a0 The team managed to shooting just .349 from the field and had a season-low eight assists.\u00a0 Portland is 18-18 ATS on the season and currently an underdog on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers have won seven of the past eight regular season meetings with the Suns and have already clinched a win in the series by holding a 3-0 series lead against them in the 2010-11 campaign.\u00a0 The most recent contest also took place in Phoenix, a 101-94 Portland win that saw them lead by as many as 17 points.\u00a0 Portland has won the last seven games against Phoenix when scoring at least 100 points, including all three match-ups this year.\u00a0 Fast break points has also been a key factor in this series, with the Blazers owning a 33-22 advantage in the category in the three meetings this season.<\/p>\n

Phoenix is struggling to stop opponents and giving up a league-high 108.9 points per game and 115.5 over the last four.\u00a0 The Suns did come away with a 118-109 overtime victory over the Nets last time out by rallying from 15 points down in the fourth quarter.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the type of game, especially after Tuesday night, that we needed to find a way to win and that\u2019s exactly what we did,\u201d said point guard Steve Nash.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t play great, we showed a lot of toughness and coach implored us to compete.\u201d\u00a0 Nash was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line and helped the team move its record to 16-2 all-time at US Airways Center against the Nets.\u00a0 Phoenix is 3-10 ATS when revenging a loss versus an opponent.<\/p>\n

The Suns will be meeting the Blazers for the fourth and final time on Friday night and looking to avoid a four-game series sweep.\u00a0 Phoenix was last swept in the series in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign.\u00a0 The squad is 9-2 against the Blazers at tonight\u2019s venue since Nash returned to the Suns.\u00a0 With a win in tonight\u2019s game, Phoenix would win consecutive games for the first time since December 2-5, as the team is 2-4 in the month of January and dropped 12 of its last 17 games overall.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Trail Blazers due to their 9-4-1 ATS mark in the last 14 meetings, while the Suns are 2-7-1 ATS at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns Friday, 1\/14\/10, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Portland has played 22 of its 39 games away from the Rose Garden and many players are starting to suggest its taking its toll on the club.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been on the road a lot,\u201d said forward LaMarcus Aldridge.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been home a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3303,577,830,576,3693],"class_list":["post-12478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-lamarcus-aldridge","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-steve-nash","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478","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=12478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12480,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions\/12480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}