Houston Rockets vs Portland Trailblazers Preview

Added on Apr 18, 2009 by sbworld in

The NBA playoff late game on Saturday night will pit the Houston Rockets (53-29) against the Portland Trailblazers (54-28). Houston comes in on the road as the 5-seed with Portland as the 4-seed and had Houston been able to defeat the Dallas Mavericks in the last game of the regular season, the home court advantage in this series would have been the other way around. With Houston falling by a final score of 84-95, it’s the Trailblazers who get to start out at home with 4 of the 7 games in Portland if the series goes the full amount of games.

These Western Conference foes have met up 3 times this season with the home team coming out on top every time. The one game Portland hosted this season against the Rockets resulted in a 101-99 overtime victory in which the Rockets easily covered the NBA odds that had them listed at +5. Houston has won the last two games in Texas and every single game between the teams this season has gone over the total with Portland getting the cover in 2 of the 3.

Most online sportsbooks list the home-team Blazers as 5-point favorites with the point spread not moving much despite roughly 65% of the betting public liking Portland in game 1 action. The total has seen a good deal of movement after opening up at 183 before it got steamed down to where it currently sits which is 182 at most places. 5Dimes.com is the only book which currently has a 181.5 number if you prefer to bet on the over here.

Houston has been playing pretty good basketball with wins in 6 of their last 10 games but Portland has been on fire. The Blazers have won 9 of their last 10 games and are going to be hard to defeat at home with a 34-7 record there this season compared to Houston’s 20-21 road mark on the year. Portland has covered the point spread 26 times at home this season while Houston has 20 covers while on the road.

The big injury news for this contest centers on Portland big man Greg Oden and his sinus infection. The often-injured center is currently listed as questionable for the first game of the playoffs and will be a game time decision.

This should be a great game to watch before going to sleep and hopefully this information leads those who plan on sports betting on the game in the right direction.