NBA Betting Free Picks: Portland @ Boston
Added on Jan 23, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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The Portland Trailblazers will continue their East Coast road swing without shooting guard Brandon Roy, who is on the shelf for a couple of games with a tweaked hamstring. They’ll be in Boston tonight to take on the Celtics who have been struggling of late. Boston has lost three straight and four of their last five games. The sportsbooks have compensated the line due to Roy’s absense and that gives us a bit of NBA betting value to work with here:
Portland Trailblazers at Boston Celtics
January 22. 4:35 PM Pacific
Injuries aren’t as simple a concept for the sports handicapper as they first may appear. Its not as easy as assuming that Portland will be ‘weaker’ without their All Star shooting guard, thus the Celtics will get a blowout victory. For one thing, games lose a lot of their ‘intensity’ when a star player is missing. For an opposing team, its simply not as big of a deal to play the Lakers minus Kobe, the Cavs without LeBron–or the Blazers without Brandon Roy in the lineup. For short term injuries, you’ll often see talented reserves getting more minutes and taking advantage of the opportunity to ‘earn’ more playing time when the missing star returns. That could very well be the case here. Portland is thin in the front court but has a slew of very talented guards. They’ve performed well when Roy has been out of the lineup, and there’s every reason to think they could rise to the occasion tonight.
Portland has been a solid ATS road team this year with an 11-8 record. Conversely, the Celtics haven’t been a good investment at home where they’re 6-12 ATS or as a favorite where they’re 13-21 versus the number. Portland still has enough talent to hang with Boston, and particularly if the Celtics don’t give forth a focused effort. Blazers have covered four of their last six, while the Celtics have only cashed tickets in 2 of their last 7. We’ll take the points with Portland here.
Bet Portland +10′ over Boston
