Los Angeles Lakers at Portland Trail Blazers, Rose Garden, Portland, OR
Friday, April 8, 2011, 10:00 pm Eastern, TV: KCAL, KGW
Opening Line: Lakers Pick’em
Current Line: Lakers -2.5
Opening Total: 185
Current Total: 184.5
Money Line: Lakers -140 / Blazers +120
Friday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers (55-23) and Portland Trail Blazers (46-33) could be a possible first-round playoff preview. However, the Trail Blazers will try to avoid that scenario by handing the two-time defending NBA champions their fourth straight loss.
The Lakers (-2.5) are expected to finish with the second seed in the Western Conference and could draw Portland in the opening round if the Blazers end up seventh. Right now, Portland sits in the sixth spot following a 98-87 road victory at Utah on Thursday. The Blazers are a half-game ahead of New Orleans with three games left in the regular season and have dropped the last three meetings with LA.
Portland rebounded from a 108-87 home loss to Golden State on Tuesday with a much-needed win over the Jazz behind a game-high 29 points from Gerald Wallace. The Blazers also got 21 points from Nicolas Batum while LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 12 points despite poor 6 of 19 shooting and a team-high 11 rebounds.
Los Angeles might have been a longshot to overtake San Antonio for the top seed in the West, but the team certainly does not want to finish the season on a down note following a 17-1 run right after the All-Star break. The Lakers have not looked good in dropping three in a row since then, including a 95-87 setback at Golden State on Wednesday.
The Warriors allowed LA to score the first 10 points of the game and trailed 23-14 at the end of the first quarter before winning the second and third by a combined 26 points. A 17-point deficit heading into the fourth was simply too much for even the Lakers to overcome that late in the game. Kobe Bryant scored a team-high 25 points in 32 minutes while Pau Gasol added 18 in 27.
The mindset of head coach Phil Jackson going into his team’s last four games makes this a difficult game to handicap. Jackson would like to rest Bryant, Gasol and injury-prone center Andrew Bynum as much as possible but also wants them to stay sharp and finish strong.
Portland covered the spread in losing the last meeting at Los Angeles 84-80 on March 20. The Blazers are 5-3 vs. the line in the past eight games against the Lakers with the OVER cashing five times. The UNDER is 3-1 in Portland’s last four games overall and 5-1 in LA’s past six.
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