NBA Today
SCOREBOARD
Thursday, Dec. 18
Phoenix at Portland (10:30 p.m. EST). Two nights after Portland retired his No. 30 jersey, Phoenix coach Terry Porter returns to the Rose Garden.
STARS
Wednesday
— Danny Granger, Pacers, scored 17 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter, made all 17 of his free throws and had 11 rebounds and six assists in Indiana’s 127-120 victory over Golden State.
— LeBron James, Cavaliers, scored 32 points on 14-of-20 shooting to help Cleveland beat Minnesota 93-70.
— Allen Iverson, 76ers, scored 28 points in Detroit’s 88-74 win over Washington.
— Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, Mavericks. Nowitzki had 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Terry also scored 27 points in Dallas’ 96-86 win in Toronto.
— Lou Williams, 76ers, matched his career high with 25 points in Philadelphia’s 93-88 victory over Milwaukee.
— Kevin Garnett, Celtics, scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter in Boston’s 88-85 victory over Atlanta.
STREAKS
Boston beat Atlanta 88-85 on Wednesday night for its 16th straight victory. The Celtics are a franchise-best 24-2. … Cleveland beat Minnesota 93-70 to extend the Timberwolves’ losing streak to 11 games.
STEALS
Chris Paul broke Alvin Robertson’s NBA record for consecutive regular-season games with a steal, reaching 106 in New Orleans’ 90-83 victory over San Antonio on Wednesday night. Paul finished with three steals.
SIDELINED
Philadelphia forward Elton Brand dislocated his right shoulder in the third quarter against Milwaukee on Wednesday night. … New Orleans’ Peja Stojakovic missed the Hornets’ game against San Antonio because of back spasms. … Raptors rookie forward Nathan Jawai, sidelined since training camp because of an unidentified heart abnormality, has been cleared to begin workouts.
STATS
The Clippers’ Marcus Camby had a career-high 27 rebounds and scored 19 points in Los Angeles’ 115-109 overtime loss to Chicago. … Detroit is 10-9 with Allen Iverson on the roster. … Toronto has lost three straight to drop to 2-6 since Jay Triano replaced Sam Mitchell as coach Dec. 3.
SPEAKING
“We want to play championship basketball. That’s what we’re building up to. Our goal is to win a championship. You play your role around here. You do your job. You do what you’re supposed to.”—Boston’s Kevin Garnett after leading the Celtics to their 16th straight victory, 88-85 over Atlanta on Wednesday night.
SAN ANTONIO (15 - 8) at ORLANDO (19 - 6)
Top Trends for this game.
SAN ANTONIO is 24-36 ATS (-15.6 Units) in road games over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 72-43 ATS (+24.7 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 48-30 ATS (+15.0 Units) as a favorite over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 39-19 ATS (+18.1 Units) first half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 29-13 ATS (+14.7 Units) after a non-conference game over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 39-24 ATS (+12.6 Units) after scoring 105 points or more over the last 3 seasons.
Head-to-Head Series History
SAN ANTONIO is 3-1 against the spread versus ORLANDO over the last 3 seasons
SAN ANTONIO is 3-1 straight up against ORLANDO over the last 3 seasons
3 of 4 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons
PHOENIX (15 - 10) at PORTLAND (16 - 10)
Top Trends for this game.
PORTLAND is 19-9 ATS (+9.1 Units) in home games first half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
PORTLAND is 18-7 ATS (+10.3 Units) after scoring 105 points or more over the last 2 seasons.
PORTLAND is 29-14 ATS (+13.6 Units) in home games when playing against a team with a winning record over the last 3 seasons.
PHOENIX is 36-16 ATS (+18.4 Units) in a road game where where the total is between 200 and 204.5 points since 1996.
PHOENIX is 309-255 ATS (+28.5 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record since 1996.
PORTLAND is 2-13 ATS (-12.3 Units) as a home favorite of 3.5 to 6 points over the last 3 seasons.
Head-to-Head Series History
PHOENIX is 7-2 against the spread versus PORTLAND over the last 3 seasons
PHOENIX is 9-0 straight up against PORTLAND over the last 3 seasons
5 of 9 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons
SAN ANTONIO vs. ORLANDO
San Antonio is 6-2 SU in its last 8 games when playing on the road against Orlando
The total has gone OVER in 8 of San Antonio's last 9 games when playing on the road against Orlando
Orlando is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games
Orlando is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games
PHOENIX vs. PORTLAND
Phoenix is 2-7 ATS in its last 9 games
Phoenix is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
Portland is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games when playing at home against Phoenix
Portland is 0-5 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Phoenix
Hot Teams
-- Orlando won, covered six of their last seven games. Spurs won five of their last six games.
-- Suns won four of their last five games.
Cold Teams
-- Trailblazers lost three of last four, covered one of last eight games.
Totals
-- Five of last seven Orlando games stayed under the total.
-- Nine of last ten Phoenix games went over the total.
NBA Research Report
By Indiancowboy
San Antonio vs. Orlando
Well, speaking of the Spurs, they just come off a tough road loss to NO and now have to head on the road to play the Magic on the road in Orlando. Orlando on the other hand is rested for this game. San Antonio actually swept this team back in the 07-08 season by winning all three games that were on the docket that season. SA had won 6 straight before losing that game on the road to NO and will look to bounce-back here. But, the Magic have oodles of revenge given the fact they were swept by this Spurs team last year. I lean slightly on the Spurs for the outright here, but likely will just stay away. After all, the Magic are hot and the Spurs are a sound bounce-back team when healthy.
Thursday NBA Previews
By Andre Gomes
San Antonio @ Orlando
The Spurs lost yesterday against the Hornets in an anticipated revenge game for New Orleans, but it's important to say that the Spurs had the lead during most of the game just to fall short at the end, with a 23-8 run for the Hornets. San Antonio is playing decent basketball now, with their big three back. Today they will face one of the powerhouses of the East: the Orlando Magic. Note that Dwight Howard is day-to-day for this game and he has already missed 2 games and curiously the Magic won both games on the road against the Jazz (huge win in a tough place) and the lowly Warriors by relying on their ability to knock down treys (14-27 and 10-20 on those games). They had a 5 game road trip on the West and they will now return home to face a tough stretch of games against the Spurs, the Lakers, the Warriors and the Hornets.
Phoenix @ Portland
I don't know if this is related, but do you remember when some players of Phoenix lamented that their offense wasn't floating? Terry Porter listened to them for sure, because the Suns are lightning on the offense again: 106, 125, 110, 113 and 111 points scored in their last 5 games shows that their powerful offense is back, but for how long? Jason Richardson is already on the starting lineup and it seems he is adjusting nicely to the team. Today they will face the young Blazers, who bounced back nicely from a though stretch of 3 consecutive losses by spanking the Kings 109-77, in a great defensive effort. For this game note that the Suns have already beat twice in this season the Blazers and in fact they have won the last 11 games between these two teams. So the Blazers want for sure to stop this bleeding. It looks like this game will be a matchup between two different generations and I expect it to be a great game.