NBA Spreads: Portland Trail Blazers at Toronto Raptors
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Portland Trail Blazers go for their third straight win Friday night against the Toronto Raptors. The game will be played in Toronto at Air Canada Centre. This is the second and final meeting between these two teams. Portland won 97-84 at home back on Nov. 6.
Taking a look at the NBA spreads for tonight’s games, oddsmakers have the Trail Blazers favored by 2.5-points over the Raptors with the total set at 196.5.
Portland comes in off an impressive 109-103 win at home against the Chicago Bulls on Monday, and should have plenty of energy with three days off between games.
The Raptors were unable to hold on to a 3-point fourth quarter lead against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. San Antonio outscored the Raptors 30-16 in the final period to win 111-100.
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The Trail Blazers had hoped that Brandon Roy would be able to make his return against the Raptors, but while Roy is practicing, they have decided to wait a little longer before bringing him back. Also close to returning is Marcus Camby, but he too is expected to miss the game against Toronto.
It might not matter who is in a Blazers uniform if LaMarcus Aldridge continues to dominate the way he did against the Bulls on Monday. Aldridge scored a career-high 42 points on 15-23 shooting, and is averaging 26.8 points and 9.6 rebounds over his last five games.
Andre Miller also had a big game against the Bulls with 27 points, 11 assists, and six rebounds, while Rudy Fernandez provided a spark off the bench with 18 points.
While Toronto can’t be happy with the way things ended against the Spurs, the fact that they played as well as they did for three quarters is something to build on. Andrea Bargnani scored a game-high 29 points, DeMar Derozan put in 25, and Leandro Barbosa added 20 points in just 27 minutes off the bench.
While the Raptors shot 50% from the field and only turned the ball over eight times, their lack of defense ended up costing them. Toronto allowed the Spurs to shoot 58% and gave up ridiculous 70 points in the paint. Not exactly the kind of stats you want to have going up against Aldridge.
I think this is a good time to take Toronto at home as an underdog. Portland hasn’t been very good on the road lately, and I have a feeling they aren’t going to take Toronto too seriously and it’s going to cost them.
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