Orlando Magic vs. Portland Trail Blazers: NBA Free Pick

The Magic have been dealing with the flu bug that has really caused Head Coach Stan Van Gundy to have to shift a ton of things around in his lineup card. With half the team out of the lineup, Orlando has really struggled to get things going preceding this lengthy four game road trip on the West Coast, and that could be bad news for it. However, with the potential exception of Jameer Nelson, the rest of the Magic Men are back in the lineup and should be ready to get going once again now that they are playing away from Mickey Mouse’s house. Defensively, Orlando is still second to none in the NBA, allowing teams to score just 90.1 points per game. When you parlay that with an offense that is just chock full of stars, the potential is there to be incredibly dangerous. Throw out these past few games in which the ‘O’ has been out of it because many of the starters were kept out of the lineup when you analyze this one. Dwight Howard and all of his friends should be ready to go again. Howard is averaging 20.9 points and 12.1 boards per game this year, and he already has 46 blocks to boot.

Portland’s struggles that consisted of seven straight games with no more than 96 points hitting the board, at least for the time being, appear to be over with. The Blazers are about set to embark on a long road trip, but they are on a two game winning streak at home and have outscored their foes by 16 points in those two games. “The Natural,” G Brandon Roy, is back to his normal minutes, playing at least 31 seemingly every single night, but his scoring production feels like it has slipped just a bit. His 20 point performance two nights ago against the Phoenix Suns marked the first time he reached that barrier since November 28th against the New Jersey Nets. Watch out for F LaMarcus Aldridge in this one, as he is going to be a matchup nightmare for Orlando unless Howard is going to be guarding him. Even so, if he does, Aldridge can take Howard away from the basket, which could set up Marcus Camby to have a fantastic night on the glass. Aldridge is averaging 17.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in arguably the best season that he has had to date.

It seems to be a bit of an insult that the Blazers are underdogs in this game on Thursday night, especially playing in front of that national TV audience. The Magic are weak in two positions this year, and this is exactly where Portland can take some big time advantage. There won’t be a slew of scoring in this one, but if the Blazers can keep Orlando off of the glass, they should be able to walk away with a big time ‘W’ on Thursday.