OffshoreInsiders.com Senior Sports Handicapper Matt Rivers has a winner Monday is on the Portland Trail Blazers (+2) at Orlando.
This may be the simplest write-up that I have ever had, truly. The Trailblazers aren’t great at all but with Dwight Howard out suspended who on the Magic has any chance of slowing down LaMarcus Aldridge? Orlando is an extremely small team that has Howard in the paint and pretty much nothing else. They made the flurry of trades a few months ago after that losing streak and really became a ton smaller limiting themselves in a major way if anything ever happened to Howard.
Well it now happened as the big man is out suspended for accumulating all of the technical fouls.
Orlando does have a ton of guys that are somewhat quick and can shoot in Arenas, Richardson, Turkoglu, Redick and Anderson but the deficiency in the paint is just beyond belief and would rival Gulliver against the Liliputians or whoever he was against. If I was smart enough to know that I probably wouldn’t be doing this.
Plus Portland has really manned up through all of the injuries and is a team that has to be taken seriously by all right now. The Blazers have won two in a row and 9 of their last 12 games to get to the current 35-27 mark.
Stan Van Gundy will have no choice but to go small and that will mean a lot of long range shooting for the home Magic. If they can consistently knock down those three’s then all I can do is tip my cap. But the advantage with a guy that has been blowing up in Aldridge tonight in the middle is just much too good to overlook.
Aldridge is a superstar, Brandon Roy is still somewhat around, Andre Miller is a bit rejuvenated and after 48 minutes I will gladly fade the well undersized Magic without their star in Howard.
Top expert pick on this game: Portland from the real Matt Rivers
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