The Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat have been two of the best teams in the NBA throughout the 2013-14 season, but entering Monday\u2019s faceoff, the two are struggling mightily with the playoffs around the corner. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Portland (45-21) @ Miami (47-21)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Despite starting 24-5, the Portland Trail Blazers are just 21-20 since.<\/p>\n The team has lost six of its last nine (its only wins coming against the New Orleans Pelicans, Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards), and while the hot start has made them a near-lock to make the postseason, fans are now wondering if the team will even manage a single series victory after once being a championship contender.<\/p>\n Although Portland has played down to its competition as of late\u2014the team is coming off of a brutal 124-94 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats\u2014it has also played up to its competition all year.<\/p>\n The last time the Blazers played the Heat it was on the Moda Center floor and it took a last-second three-point shot from Chris Bosh to give Miami the 108-107 victory.<\/p>\n Both of these teams are struggling with injuries, and on Portland\u2019s side, that means LaMarcus Aldridge.<\/p>\n The three-time All-Star has missed significant time following the All-Star break, and while his return will likely be sooner rather than later, there\u2019s no indication (as of March 23 2:00 p.m. ET) that he will be in the lineup against the Heat. For Miami, Dwyane Wade missed the recent outing against New Orleans, and while LeBron James was in the lineup, he banged up his body even further by rolling an ankle when he already had a bad back.<\/p>\n The bigger storyline for Miami at this point in the season is overall consistency.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen James play through injuries in the past, and we\u2019ve seen the team succeed without Wade in the lineup, but what we\u2019re seeing now is even more concerning, as the team has gone just 4-7 in its last 11\u2014a stretch that hasn\u2019t been acceptable since the pre-Big Three era.<\/p>\n In this one, Miami will look to attack the middle. Robin Lopez has been a saving grace for Portland this season, but it\u2019s been apparent that he can\u2019t handle the load on his own, as the Blazers\u2019 perimeter defense hasn\u2019t been enough to keep athletic swingmen (not unlike LeBron James) out of the paint.<\/p>\n The bigger key for Miami will be defending the perimeter.<\/p>\n If Portland gets going early, and more importantly keeps it going late, the Heat will be in trouble.<\/p>\n That said, if Miami can use its athleticism on the outside to force bad looks, Portland will be the one scrapping for offense against one of the best defensive teams in the Association.<\/p>\n Prediction: Miami 110 \u2013 Portland 98<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trail Blazers vs Heat Odds The Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat have been two of the best teams in the NBA throughout the 2013-14 season, but entering Monday\u2019s faceoff, the two are struggling mightily with the playoffs around the corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":73477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2765,66499,30501,53821,4567,46131],"class_list":["post-74331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portland-trail-blazers-vs-miami-heat","tag-portland-vs-miami","tag-trail-blazers-vs-heat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74331","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=74331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74346,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74331\/revisions\/74346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Monday, March 24 7:30 PM ET NBATV<\/strong>
\n Spread: Heat -7<\/strong>
\n Over\/Under: 209<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nPortland<\/h3>\n
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n[ad-6571516]<\/p>\nMiami<\/h3>\n