Portland Trailblazers at Denver Nuggets Preview and Pick

NBA Basketball Betting Preview
Portland Trailblazers (37-27) at Denver Nuggets (41-21)
Sunday March 7th, 10:30PM Eastern

Betus.com betting line – Denver -6, 206 O/U

The Denver Nuggets host the Portland Trailblazers in a late Sunday night Northwest division showdown inside Pepsi Arena. Denver owns the 2nd best Western Conference record at 41-21 and their postseason future appears bright especially with their success over the Lakers this season. Denver also owns one of the best home records in the NBA at 27-5 and will be 6 point favorites over the Trailblazers this Sunday. Portland has won 3 straight games and 5 of their last 6 outings. The Trailblazers are also re-energized after having 3 days off which is a fairly sizeable advantage in their favor. However, the Trailblazers recent winning spree has hardly come at the hands of any respectable opponents and it will be interesting to see just how well they are playing when they travel to Denver Sunday night.

Portland will enter the game after destroying Indiana on Wednesday 102-79. Brandon Roy led the team with 22 points in that meeting while LaMarcus Aldridge added an additional 19 points. The 22 points for Roy matched his season average as he remains the leading scoring treat for the Nuggets defense. In Portland’s previous two meetings against the Nuggets this season, Roy has combined for 71 points. In fact, Roy drained 41 to lead the Trailblazers over Denver in the last meeting which resulted in a 107-96 outcome. Portland shot 53% from the floor in that outing and it is safe to say they need to be just as strong from the offensive end this Sunday night.

Portland on the other hand will need to put some defensive focus on Denver’s Carmelo Anthony. Anthony has combined to score 73 points in the last two meetings with Portland including a similar 41 point high in the first meetings this year which resulted in a Nuggets 97-94 victory. The Trailblazers are a very strong defensive team ranking 3rd in the NBA allowing 94.9 points per game, but just have not had an answer for Anthony. Denver also scored a victory over Indiana, as did Portland, in their last outing 122-114. Anthony also led the team in that game with 31 points while J.R Smith added 20 points as well. Smith has had some success against Portland in previous performances so he will be a guy to keep an eye on especially if he catches the hot hand.

Chauncey Billups is 2nd on the team averaging 20 points on the season (Anthony ppg 28.7 is 1st). However, Billups was held to just 10 points against Portland in the last meeting and has also been held to 14 points or less in his last two performances. Billups is another guy that could really break the game open if he caught rhythm on the outside, but the Nuggets have yet to turn to the outside shooting against Portland due to Anthony’s success on the inside. It will be very interesting to see if Portland clamps down defensively in the paint, because that should create some opportunities for Billups, Smith, and others. The question is will they be able to hit those shots?

Portland definitely should be worth considering here with the extra points due to their winning streak and previous success against the Nuggets this season. Throw in the fact they will be well rested and it really gives the points some value. However, I really think those factors are a bit misleading despite the larger portion of the betting public siding with Portland. The reason being is that Portland’s 3 straight wins have come against very weak teams while their best shooting performance was just 45% from the field. If Denver plays just average, those misses will really hurt the offense against the Nuggets fast pace style of offense. Also, I’m expecting the 3 days rest for Portland to have an adverse of effect and believe they may come out a bit cold.

Pick – Taking a chance here, but rolling with Denver.