The Houston Rockets haven\u2019t made it easy on the Portland Trail Blazers, but you wouldn\u2019t know it by the series total through four games. At this point, Portland has a 3-1 series lead, but two of those wins have come in overtime.[ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
In fact, the one loss also came in overtime, making this arguably the most exciting series so far in the 2014 NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Houston Rockets Game 5 Preview<\/strong>
\nNo. 5 Portland (3-1) @ No. 4 Houston (1-3)<\/strong>
\nWednesday, April 30 6:30 PM ET (TNT)<\/strong>
\nToyota Center in Houston, TX<\/strong>
\nSpread: Houston -5.5<\/strong>
\nTotal: 213.5<\/strong>
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Portland<\/h3>\n
The Blazers enter this contest with one goal in mind, and while it\u2019s the same goal as the before, they\u2019re officially one step away from making it happen: reach the second round for the first time since the 1999-00 season.<\/p>\n
In order for Portland to steal another one on the road, the team must keep James Harden to another inefficient night. His numbers have been solid when looking at raw points, but Wesley Matthews has done what\u2019s necessary to keep him off his game in terms of field-goal percentage.<\/p>\n
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Containing Dwight Howard is also important, but we\u2019ve seen thus far that Houston simply can\u2019t win when Harden shoots a terrible percentage.<\/p>\n
Offensively, look for LaMarcus Aldridge to get back to where he was in Games 1 and 2 of this series.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not necessarily meaning he\u2019ll score 46 points; it means he\u2019ll be aggressive going to the rim and confident in his shot whether it\u2019s Howard, Omer Asik or Terrence Jones defending him.
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\nConsider Mo Williams and Thomas Robinson the X-factors in this one. Robinson will bring the energy, while Williams will bring either good or bad shooting.<\/p>\nHouston<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s do or die time for the Houston Rockets. In order to avoid going home in the first round, this team must win the next three. It\u2019s easier said than done, but as one of the greatest movies of our time so eloquently said, \u201cYou\u2019re telling me there\u2019s a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
As stated above, the Rockets need to get James Harden going.<\/p>\n
In Game 2, Dwight Howard went on a tear in the first quarter and fans got excited every time he touched the ball. Unfortunately for Clutch City, Howard\u2019s hot start took away from Harden\u2019s momentum, meaning they should give it the opposite go this time around.<\/p>\n
Defensively, stopping Aldridge is important \u2013 as well as Damian Lillard \u2013 but it\u2019s the role players who are stepping up unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
Wesley Matthews finally had his first good shooting game in Game 4, Nicolas Batum has stepped up in the last two and, again, as previously mentioned, Mo Williams can be a difference maker.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Houston, it just hasn\u2019t looked as cohesive of a basketball team as the Blazers.<\/p>\n
The team aspect hasn\u2019t been there, and the consistency hasn\u2019t been there.<\/p>\n
This may be the first game of the series decided by double digits, and it just might going against the Rockets.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Portland 117 \u2013 Houston 104<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rockets vs Trail Blazer Odds The Houston Rockets haven\u2019t made it easy on the Portland Trail Blazers, but you wouldn\u2019t know it by the series total through four games. At this point, Portland has a 3-1 series lead, but two of those wins have come in overtime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":76352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[61817,3426,578,49837,30501,45685,62005,62006,1983],"class_list":["post-76350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-bet-nba-odds","tag-game-5","tag-houston-rockets","tag-nba-gambling-picks","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portland-trail-blazers-vs-houston-rockets","tag-portland-vs-houston","tag-trail-blazers-vs-rockets","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76350","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=76350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76354,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76350\/revisions\/76354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}