NBA Betting Odds: Atlanta Hawks at Portland Trailblazers

Added on Feb 27, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Plenty of basketball at sportsbooks today both in NBA and college, and in this post we’ll head down the bottom of the pro basketball betting board and look at a non-conference game between the Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trailblazers. Hawks are coming off a blowout win over Golden State but haven’t been in very good form of late. The Blazers have continued to play hard despite their injuries and have won 7 of their last 8.

Atlanta Hawks at Portland Trailblazers
February 27, 2011 7:35 PM Pacific

Blazers’ newly acquired Gerald Wallace should be in the lineup here. The thing about the Portland Trailblazers is that no matter how many players are injured you can always count on them to give a good effort. There’s some dissatisfaction with Nate McMillan has head coach, but his ability to get this team to come out and compete night after night despite circumstances beyond their control is remarkable. The same thing can’t be said about the Hawks, who are one of the most erratic teams in the NBA. On some nights they look like a serious contender in the Eastern Conference. On other nights they look like a team that doesn’t belong in the playoffs. That was part of the rationale behind the trade they made sending Mike Bibby to Washington for Kirk Hinrich–the hope is that Hinrich would bring more defensive intensity to the backcourt.

The Hawks have held the upper hand in this series of late, at least from a pointspread perspective. Atlanta won and covered both games last year and although Portland has won 9 of the last 13 meetings at the Rose Garden the Hawks have covered 9 of the last 13. Hawks have been a bad investment of late, however, going 6-9 ATS in their L15 games and have lost 5 of their L7 both SU and ATS. They’re only 7-15 ATS against the Western Conference this year and underscoring their erratic nature they don’t bounce back well off a big win–after a win of 10 or more points they’re a woeful 4-13 ATS this season! They’re also a substandard 6-13 SU/7-12 ATS against opponents with winning records. Portland has a profitable ATS record at home this year and are in much better form at the moment while the Hawks will be playing in their 6th straight road game.

Bet Portland Trailblazers -4′ over Atlanta Hawks