Basketball betting for Friday includes an ESPN televised game as the Cleveland Cavaliers host the Portland Trail Blazers. The Cavaliers are solid home favorites in NBA betting in this matchup against Portland. Basketball betting has this as the third game of a four-game road trip for the Blazers. They finish up the trip tomorrow at Milwaukee. The Cavaliers have done well of late in this series against the Blazers, winning the last four. The Cavaliers were one of only three teams to sweep the Trail Blazers a year ago and they are the only team to sweep Portland in each of the last two basketball betting seasons. The Cavaliers have won nine of the last eleven meetings between the teams, including six straight wins over the Trail Blazers in Cleveland. Portland simply doesn’t score enough against Cleveland to win. The last time the Blazers scored 100 points in a game against the Cavaliers was in November of 2003. Cleveland outshot Portland 47.6% to 41.4% from the field and 39.5% to 30% from three-point range in last season’s basketball betting matchups.Going a little deeper in basketball betting we see that Cleveland has won 8 of the last 10 straight up against the Blazers and they are 7-3 against the NBA betting odds in those games. The games last year were competitive though as the Cavs won 97-92 at home and 104-98 in Portland. Cleveland did not cover the basketball betting pointspread in that home win. Both of those games went over the NBA betting total. Six of the last ten between the two teams have gone over.
A lot was expected from the Trail Blazers this basketball betting season and so far they have not delivered. Portland has been just barely above average and that is not good enough in the Western Conference. The team lost Greg Oden for the year to injury so their defense may start to suffer. They were third in the league in fewest points allowed as basketball betting stats showed. Offensively they have struggled all year and something seems amiss for this Portland team in basketball betting.
Cleveland has been good again this basketball betting season as expected but they are actually better on the road than at home. They have become overpriced at home so the value with the Cavs is when they are on the road in basketball betting. Cleveland is led as usual by LeBron James and this NBA betting season he is getting support from Mo Williams.