A lucky win yesterday as Miami vs Phily went Overtime, today hope this won't happen!
BOSTON at PORTLAND
Boston comes to this
match with a new situation for them this season. For this first time in the
season, they have lost three times in a row and everybody is waiting to see how
they will react in this new situation for them, in a hard match away against the
young Trail Blazers. Boston in this road trip in the West had two different
phases. In the first two games they played almost in a run and gun style and
even though they were capable to compete until the end against Denver and
Golden State, they lost both matches in games with more than 230 points scored.
But in the last game, Boston lost against the Suns in a tremendous defensive
game. And even though this was their biggest defeat in this road trip, the team
played with a similar style of what they've done this season, with an enormous
focus in the defense. Doc Rivers has said exactly that:
The first two games
on the trip we played horrible even though they were close games. (Friday)
night, besides missing wide-open shots and just being inefficient offensively
with our passing, it was more like we play.
Today the team will
try to snap this losing streak, playing with their normal style, but they will
find a team that everytime is the home dog, gives a lot of fight to their
opponents. Portland has surprised everyone this season and when they are the
home dog, the under is 6-2 on these games. However, after the All Star break,
the team is having a lot of problems in scoring (94 pts vs Kings; 92 and 87 pts
vs Seattle). In their last two games, Portland shot worse than 40% FG and shot
11-37 3pts, which is a sign of a confidence crisis in the attack.
Portland will do
everything for this match to be an ugly game, as they won't want to play with
an open court style. Besides that, Portland will do everything for this match
to be extremely aggressive, something that Boston will also try to do to avoid
a fourth loss in a row. A curious stat: Boston was already an away favorite
between 6 and 7,5 points for five times this season. And all these five games
ended up being under. I predict the same to happen in here today. Take the
under in here.
PLAY 1* UNIT ON UNDER 186 POINTS
Good Luck