Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThe truth is that their championship window is closing, and early-season contests aren\u2019t nearly as concerning as late-season battles.<\/p>\n
San Antonio<\/h3>\n
That said, the Portland Trail Blazers will give them a run for their money, as they\u2019re coming off of a solid road win against the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n
The San Antonio Spurs remain one of the most experienced teams in the NBA. More importantly, they\u2019re one of the best-coached teams in The Association, which is why they\u2019ll compete atop the conference the entire 2013-14 season.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Spurs, the heart and soul of their team is questionable entering Saturday\u2019s contest. Tim Duncan missed the second game of the season against the Los Angeles Lakers, as he was remedying a chest contusion suffered in the season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n
Defensively, San Antonio will hope to contain former Rookie of the Year, Damian Lillard. The point guard has played extremely well so far this season, and more importantly, he\u2019s played extremely efficiently. The main point of focus of the Spurs\u2019 defense will be LaMarcus Aldridge, especially if Duncan is unable to participate.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the Spurs must focus on defending the three-point line.<\/p>\n
The Blazers aren\u2019t afraid of launching from downtown, and if their game against Denver proved anything, it\u2019s that they\u2019re beyond dangerous when they\u2019re hitting from long range. \u00a0[ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
On offense, the strategy has to be attacking the rim. Tony Parker will be able to penetrate against Lillard, and Lopez, the Trail Blazers\u2019 newest starting center, has shown through two contests that he can be pressured down low by opposing offenses.<\/p>\n
Portland<\/h3>\n
The Blazers may have dropped a winnable game against the Phoenix Suns in their season opener, but they made up for it with a strong win against the Denver Nuggets\u2014an opponent they don\u2019t usually take down on the road.<\/p>\n
In Game 3, Portland plays its home opener against a true contender. The key to this contest is going to be a hot start, as that\u2019s what separated its first two contests. Against Phoenix, the team couldn\u2019t score early, and more importantly, it couldn\u2019t stop transition buckets.<\/p>\n
Against Denver, Portland found a way to push the tempo, and it played defense that was good enough to hold its opponent to a low percentage.<\/p>\n
From a historical standpoint, the Trail Blazers have won 12 straight home openers. They have momentum after a big-time win against a Western Conference opponent, and the significant difference between Game 1 and Game 2 was a concentration on bench production and pick-and-roll defense.<\/p>\n
The Blazers may not be the favorites entering the contest in the eyes of most around the country, but they\u2019re in a strong position to start the season off on the right foot.<\/p>\n
San Antonio will give them a run for their money, but the Blazers will come away with an important victory at the Moda Center\u2014formerly known as the Rose Garden.<\/p>\n
Prediction: San Antonio 97 \u2013 Blazers 101<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio vs Portland NBA Betting Odds The San Antonio Spurs may be the defending Western Conference champions, but like every year, they\u2019re being heavily overlooked early in the 2013-14 NBA season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":67894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8911,30501,9668,4027,43758,4161,4025,4160,50143],"class_list":["post-68380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-san-antonio-spurs-vs-portland-trail-blazers","tag-san-antonio-vs-portland","tag-spurs","tag-spurs-vs-trail-blazers","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68382,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68380\/revisions\/68382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}