Basketball betting on the series between Portland and Phoenix was not expected to be competitive but that has not been the case so far. The Suns were heavily favored to dispatch of the Blazers in short order since Portland is without Brandon Roy but that has not happened. Phoenix has had a lot more trouble in this NBA betting series than most people expected.
Basketball betting trends actually favor the Suns a little bit in this game. They had won six of the last ten regular season games at Portland and they were 6-4 against the spread. In the lone regular season meeting in Portland this season it was the Blazers pulling out a very close 105-102 win. That game just barely went over the game total of 204. That continued a recent trend though with the total as the last three regular season games had gone over the total in Portland. That is somewhat of a surprise considering the Blazers were a very good defensive team this season.
Phoenix was pretty good in the regular season on the road. They finished at 23-18 against the basketball betting point spread. Phoenix can score but they rarely play any defense. The Suns were the top scoring team in the NBA this season but one of the worst on defense. That is a problem in this series against a Portland team that is good on defense. In the first game of this series the Blazers slowed things down and the Suns never really got going.
Portland was not as good at home this season as in years past. They were just 19-21-1 at home vs. the NBA betting point spread during the regular season. Portland is normally very good at home but that was not the case this season. The Blazers were third in the league on defense during the regular season but they simply were not that great on offense. In this series the Blazers are finding scoring though from players like Andre Miller and Nicolas Batum. The Blazers were thought to have very little chance in this series without leading scorer Brandon Roy but Portland is very much in this series. What should be remembered is that the Suns don’t play defense and teams simply don’t win in the playoffs very often without playing some defense. In this series the Blazers have been the better defensive team and it has showed.