NBA - 565 Memphis Grizzlies @ 566 Portland Trailblazers
Projected Line: Memphis by 4 points
Portland had a great chance to beat Memphis on the road last week by being up by double digits on the third quarter just to collapse down the stretch. I watched the game, as I had a play on Portland +7,5 and I believe the Blazers won't be as competitive tonight as they were last week. They caught Memphis coming from back to back games on the road at Miami and Orlando, they were going to play on the road once again after facing the Blazers at home, so the spot was poor for the Grizzlies. By the way, Portland was on a nice spot as they were coming from an easy home win against Charlotte. Besides that, the key factor for me to take the Blazers on that game was Zach Randolph's absence:
“For tonight, Randolph's absence is going to be very important, as Portland has nothing to do with Orlando in terms of frontcourt power. With both Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur out of tonight's game, Memphis will only have Ed Davis and Jon Leuer at the PF position. These two players have no chance of stopping LaMarcus Aldridge tonight, so this will be a great mismatch favoring the Blazers.”
Well, even without Zach Randolph, Memphis crushed Portland on the rebounds by grabbing almost 60% of the boards. LaMarcus Aldrdige was limited to 2-13 FG, while Marc Gasol simply dominated the game with 10-17 FG, 23 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists! For tonight, Zach Randolph will be back at the starting lineup and to make things worse for the Blazers, they have two key players banged up in Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldrdige plus having also bench players Victor Claver and Meyers Leonard banged up. Memphis's superior physicality down low will be a huge factor tonight against the undersized Blazers. The Grizzlies will crush Portland on the boards, so the Blazers will need to be phenomenal on the offensive end if they want to beat the Grizzlies tonight. The problem is that they will face the best defensive team on the Western Conference.
Memphis is a legit powerhouse in the West and even though we only listen to the media talk about San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the LA Clippers, the truth is that Memphis has less defeats than the Clippers. They are 12-1 on their last 13 games and their only loss was a close one at Miami! We are dealing with two teams belonging to clearly different levels right now and the Grizzlies will show that tonight. Therefore, I'll be taking Memphis in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 565 Memphis Grizzlies ML @ -120 / 1.83 on 5Dimes
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