The Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks have both been surprises throughout the 2013-14 NBA season, but only one has looked like a contender. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Portland (34-14) at New York (19-29)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Blazers, despite coming down to earth as of late, have looked like they could compete with the likes of the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder out West. New York, on the other hand, hasn\u2019t even looked like a playoff team in a historically bad Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n Luckily for the Knicks, they have home-court advantage in this one against a Portland tea that is coming off a bad loss.<\/p>\n The Blazers are fighting for a top-three seed out West, but it\u2019s losses like the one they encountered this week that will put them behind in that race. Portland is coming off of a 10-point loss to the Washington Wizards. That\u2019s the same Wizards team that hadn\u2019t been above .500 in four years before Monday night.<\/p>\n Despite the strong start to the year, the Blazers have lost three of their last four contests. Even more disturbing for Rip City is that all three were by double digits, and the only win was a last-second victory over the Toronto Raptors in a game that saw Portland blow a big lead late.<\/p>\n Against New York, the Blazers must get back to their shooting ways. They\u2019re still third in the NBA in terms of three-point percentage, and they\u2019re going up against a Knicks team that is just 21st at defending that particular category. The Blazers may be fluctuating atop the Western Conference, but it\u2019s the Knicks who have had an up-and-down start to 2014.<\/p>\n Since the start of the New Year, New York has encountered a winning streak of five, a losing streak of five and another winnings streak of four. Unfortunately, it is now in a losing streak of two with the Blazers threatening to make it three.<\/p>\n The Knicks give up 99 points per game, but the bigger story has been their offense. They\u2019re scoring just 96.9 points per contest, which is only good enough for 22nd in the Association.<\/p>\n Luckily for New York, it is going up against one of the worst defenses in the league. Portland allows its opponents to score 103.3 points per game, making them the fourth-worst in that category.<\/p>\n This game comes down to whether or not the Blazers are making their long-range shots. Don\u2019t expect much contribution off the bench, so expect the starters to see a lot of minutes.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Portland, that\u2019s a recipe for tired legs late, which doesn\u2019t bode well in a close contest.<\/p>\n Prediction: New York 103 \u2013 Portland 95<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Portland vs N.Y. NBA Betting Odds The Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks have both been surprises throughout the 2013-14 NBA season, but only one has looked like a contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":68022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4165,31683,25408,8911,30501,61064,61065,50143,61066],"class_list":["post-72263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-knicks","tag-n-y","tag-n-y-knicks","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portland-trail-blazers-vs-n-y-knicks","tag-portland-vs-n-y","tag-trail-blazers","tag-trail-blazers-vs-knicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72263","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=72263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72265,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72263\/revisions\/72265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWednesday, Feb. 5 8:00 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden<\/strong>
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Portland<\/h3>\n
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\nPortland must use LaMarcus Aldridge in the paint to set up the three-point shooting\u2014not the other way around, as the ball hasn\u2019t been dropping as of late.<\/p>\nNew York<\/h3>\n