Big Bad Blazers – Memphis at Portland
The Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trailblazers duke it out on Tuesday night in a game where the Blazers will be favorites ATS. The Grizzlies have been bad again this season even though they have two of the better up and coming players in the NBA in Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo. Memphis is 15 and 38 straight-up and 20-32-1 against the spread.
Game-day: 2/18/2009
Tip-off: 10:00 pm est.
The Portland Trailblazers are 32 and 20 straight-up and 25 and 26 ATS.
Here is the BetUS line for this game:
Portland Trailblazers -11 ½ -110
Memphis Grizzlies +11 ½ -110
Here are a few online wagering trends for this game:
The Memphis Grizzlies are 2 and 8 against the spread in their last 10 games after playing on 0 days of rest.
The Memphis Grizzlies are 2 and 8 against the spread in the last 10 meetings between these two teams.
The Portland Trailblazers are 4 and 1 against the spread in their last 5 games at home.
The Portland Trailblazer are 1 and 4 against the spread in their last 5 games overall.
The Grizzlies were absolutely pummeled by the Utah Jazz on Monday night when losing by 18 points 117 to 99. The same thing won’t happen in Portland on Tuesday night, but the Blazers are a much better team than the Grizzlies.
The reason that it won’t matter as much whether or not Greg Oden plays against the Grizzlies is because Portland has enough weapons in LeMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez to dominate the Grizzlies. Aldridge and Roy on their own should be able to handle Gay and Mayo.
The chalk could have been 15 for Memphis and I would still end up making the bet that the Blazers would cover. I believe that Oden will play and he’s going to provide the D that allows Portland to run away with this one.
Portland vs. Memphis NBA Prediction:
I’ll be making an online bet on the Portland Trailblazers to cover against the spread.
