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The Portland Trailblazers have been the most disappointing team in the NBA this season. After showing flashes of making a jump to the next level last year in their impressive playoff run, they now find themselves on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. They currently sit a game and a half back in the standings behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth seed in the West and they need to get back on the winning side of things soon.
Portland plays the Dallas Mavericks tonight who have been trending in the opposite direction. Ever since getting Dirk Nowitzki back from injury they have been slowly moving up the standings and are now in 10th place, three games back of Denver. This game is the most interesting of the night and actually has playoff implications.
These two have played three times already with the road team taking each game. Dallas is on the second game of a back-to-back tonight and that does make a difference for an older team like them. This is definitely the game of the night.
NBA Betting Tips:
The rest is the thing and tonight I think the lack of rest, especially going from the high air of Denver last night to Dallas tonight, will be trouble for the Mavericks tonight. The Blazers have been needing a game to break out of their (most recent) rut and this is as good of a chance as any. The Blazers -1.5 is the play here. If they don’t win this one, what can they win?
Houston -11.5 over Orlando is not the best line or even the best game to watch tonight, but it is a pretty solid bet. They had struggled recently, but they now have Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson back healthy and should start rolling over teams again. The Magic don’t have the scorers, spacing or defense to compete with them. This should be an ugly one.
NCAA Basketball Betting Tips:
If you think that Rockets line is high, you are going to hate Kentucky -24.5. The Wild Cats are huge favorites tonight over LSU and, honestly, it should be higher. I think this is a -30 game and while that is a lot of points to lie, that is a lot of value in that extra five and a half points. Kentucky is just better than everyone while LSU has a -7 point differential. Just the perfect storm of domination.
Another team that has been playing very well as of late is the Florida Gators, as always. They play Georgia on the road tonight and this is another game that feels like the line should be higher. The Gators -6 should be more like -9 and that is another great value. Georgia is just not a basketball program on the level of the Gators and it will show tonight.
Northwestern has the same record as the previous two teams I mentioned here, but none of the hype. They have been great this season and are looking to show the other teams in the Big Ten that they are for real. They’ll get Illinois at home tonight and I like Northwestern -5.5 a lot here. Illinois has been playing with a negative scoring differential and Northwestern may be one of the best teams in the country. Easy money.
