Blazers hit the road to Golden State

Basketball Betting Lines

03/11/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoping to keep their playoff aspirations alive, the Portland Trail Blazers will hit the road for back-to-back games starting with tonight's showdown against the Golden State Warriors at ORACLE Arena.

Portland is eighth in the Western Conference standings, just a game behind No. 7 San Antonio, and will also visit Sacramento on the road swing. The Blazers are 17-15 away from the Rose Garden, where they handed the Kings an 88-81 setback on Tuesday. Brandon Roy led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Andre Miller had 14 points and five assists for Portland, which has won four of its last five games.

"We didn't dominate this game like we wanted to come out, but we'll take the win," Roy said. "We've got to continue to improve. I thought our defense got better, but offensively, we weren't very good tonight."

Miller is averaging 16.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.28 steals since January 2. LaMarcus Aldridge had 13 points and seven boards in the recent victory, and is posting 19.5 points and 8.4 rebounds in the last 28 games for a Portland defense allowing the fewest points per game (95.1) of any team in the conference.

The Blazers have held their opponents under 100 points in 46 games this season, the most by any team in the West, and have won 41 straight contests when keeping the opposition to 88 points or less, including an 18-0 mark in 2009-10.

Golden State is playing out the string and is still searching for its first win this month, having dropped every test of a recent five-game road trip. It has lost 11 in a row away from Oakland, including Monday's 135-131 decision at New Orleans Arena.

Anthony Morrow made all six of his three-point tries on his way to 28 points for the Warriors, who got a career-high 28 points from Reggie Williams. Corey Maggette and Devean George each had 18 points in a losing effort.

"I thought we played good defense," Williams said. "I thought where it killed us was on the boards. I didn't do a good job rebounding. That definitely didn't help."

The Warriors will commence a four-game homestand Thursday versus the Blazers, Raptors, Lakers and Hornets, and own a 13-18 home mark. In injury news for Golden State, leading scorer Monta Ellis, who is averaging 25.7 ppg, has missed six straight games with a back issue and is questionable for tonight. Also, head coach Don Nelson is still seven wins away from breaking Lenny Wilkins' all-time record of 1,332 victories.

Portland and Golden State have split a pair of matchups so far this season, with each team holding serve as the host, while the Warriors have won 13 of the previous 18 matchups between the clubs. The Blazers have lost nine in a row and 12 of their last 16 visits to Oakland.

Portland last won the series, a 4-0 sweep, in 2002-03.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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