Saturday's Best NBA Bets
Portland Trail Blazers at New York Knicks (+4.5, 197.5)
What are they putting in the Trail Blazers’ Gatorade? Portland is outscoring its opponents 59-28 in the fourth quarter through two games this season.
“We were taking too many jump shots in the third quarter,” Blazers point guard Andre Miller told the Portland Tribune after the 98-88 win over the Clippers on Wednesday. “The fourth quarter, our defense forced some turnovers and the ball fell our way.”
Portland is getting some great work from its bigs in the paint. Nate McMillan’s club has outrebounded its opposition by double digits in each game this season.
That’s not good news for the Knicks. Mike D’Antonio’s team is known for its effort on the perimeter, not in the key. Look for Portland to expose a New York team coming off a Friday night game against Boston.
Pick: Portland
Denver Nuggets at Houston Rockets (-5, 212)
Defense is the topic in Houston these days. Head coach Rick Adelman is steaming after back-to-back defensive no-shows.
"We must be better than we were defensively than last year," he told the Houston Chronicle. "If not, we're going to have a hard time."
Houston gave up 132 points against Golden State on Wednesday night and 112 against the Lakers on Tuesday. To help sure up its iffy defense, Houston signed veteran center Erik Dampier on Friday to play extensive minutes on nights that Yao Ming rests his ailing body.
The Rockets already have Brad Miller and Luis Scola but neither big man is considered to be much of a shot-blocking presence.
The Dampier signing should help but it won’t be enough to slow down the fast-starting Nuggets.
Pick: Denver
Spurs look to extend dominance of Hornets
By: Adam Markowitz
The San Antonio Spurs seem to always be everyone's dark horse pick to win the NBA title. However, they were a very mediocre team in SW Division play last year, going just 9-7 SU. The only team that they really had extended success against? Saturday night's opponent, the New Orleans Hornets.
The Hornets are going to be playing on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets before heading to San Antonio for their first road game of the year. In spite of the fact that New Orleans allowed three opponents to pick up double-doubles and had five reach double digits in scoring, it had no problem trumping the Milwaukee Bucks 95-91 to open up the season.
As expected, when the Hornets do well, G Chris Paul and F David West both have good games. Paul knows that his team in the Bayou is probably short, as his name has been swirling as trade bait since the end of last season, but he got his 2010-11 campaign off to a good start by scoring 17 points to go with 16 assists. West had 22 points and seven boards.
Shooting the ball was a real problem last year for the Hornets, and things aren't off to a good start this year. If you take away Paul and West, the rest of the team only shot 19-of-54 from the field, a dreadful 35.2 percent. There is a real issue of depth on this team as well, something that very well could be exploited by the Spurs on Saturday.
As for San Antonio, it couldn't have asked for a better start to its season either. The team used a dominating fourth quarter to stomp the Indiana Pacers in the home opener 122-109, easily covering the 8 ½-point NBA betting line.
Defense in the post was a big problem, as both F Danny Granger and C Roy Hibbert had monstrous days for Indiana, but the Hornets don't have the bulk in the paint to cause that same type of problem this weekend.
Six Spurs scored in double digits, led by center Tim Duncan, who had a double-double with 23 points and 12 boards. Guard Tony Parker came up just one assist shy, as he had 20 points and nine helpers. Rookie James Anderson, a pure scorer from Oklahoma State, had a nice debut, going 4-for-8 from the field down 2-for-5 from beyond the arc to score 10 points. Guard Manu Ginobili nailed five triples and scored 22.
The Spurs have won five straight and eight of the last 10 in this series. Last season was an absolute embarrassment for the Hornets, as they were washed away four times, each loss by at least seven points. San Antonio averaged putting a 105-92 beat down on New Orleans lap in the four victories, each of which resulted in relatively easy covers.
The Spurs are going to come into this one at 11-4-1 ATS in their last 16 games played at home, while the Hornets are only 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 dating back to last season away from New Orleans Arena.
The home team has gone 13-4 ATS in the last 17 meetings in this Southwest Division rivalry, while the favorite is 11-4 ATS in the last 15.
Bookmaker will be right there with you every step of the way this weekend and will have all of your NBA betting lines, including the one for this duel. We expect to see San Antonio open as a fairly heavy favorite.