Thanksgiving tonight in the United States and as the NBA program is getting full with 28 the 30 teams are thrown into battle. We have said before in texts that when there are so many matches, it is just as easy to get carried away and open up for no reason. In general though, betting, I don't particularly like the crossovers on the night's voucher and for the time being at least I'll go with a warmer option.

At the Portland Moda Center, Blazers welcome them Thunder on 05: 00 in the early morning.

After a relatively long road trip 6 games Blazers return home. 2-4 their record during this period with their most recent victory over the Bulls (94-117). At the same time, tonight will be Carmelo's first match in front of the Portland audience. It is worth mentioning at this point that Melo seems to be doing well, especially if we include in the equation that he comes from a year of inactivity, while in the double in Chicago he was also the top scorer of the match. 6-12 the overall record of Terry Stotts's team which is true that he has made a difficult schedule with the first 14 of the 18 matches being out, while he has suffered a lot from injury issues. The goal now is to reverse the situation with 12 of the next 16 matches being inside.

The Warriors are coming off a tough win Thunder who got the match in San Frascisco in the last 3 minutes. 6-10 the record of Billy Donovan's team that has been struggling so much at home so far (1-6). Thunder are generally good defenses, but they don't find easy solutions in the offensive, which has deprived them of victories.

Summarizing, the Blazers they are not doing well defensively, however in the last 2 improved holding their opponents to 102 points, The moment when aggressively with the return of Lillard and the addition of Carmelo they start to roll. On the opposite bank Thunder not good except are facing an aggressive problem. So I will go with the victory of the hosts who are traditionally very strong at home.

Very interesting and very full tonight in the NBA, as 22 teams will be in the parquet. Personally, I will not open my game and go to a single choice.

At the United Center in Chicago, the Bulls welcome them Blazers, on 03: 00 Tuesday morning.

With Zach Lavine's incredible buzzer beater Bulls returned to victory over the Hornets (115-116). To be precise, it was not only Lavine's three-point win, but Jim Boylen's overall overthrow in the final seconds. If anyone has not seen it, let's look for it. 6-11 the record for the '' bulls '' which is true they haven't started as we expected (the goal was and still is the 8 position) and there are plenty of murmurs already, mainly for the team's coach.

Another defeat for them Blazers, the 4th in a row, this time by the Cavalies. 5-12 is the record of Terry Stotts's team that is in the penultimate position of the western region, ahead only of the Warriors (the oxymoron is that these two teams were in the finals of the West last year). Lillard returned against the Cavs, who is having a very good year based on numbers and will play normally tonight as well.

Given The Blazers are not as bad as the rating indicates and I think it's a matter of time to "find" it and play to their true potential, while it's true that they have suffered quite a bit from injuries so far. I will trust them tonight despite the negative run they are running. If they are serious in defense that is where their main issue lies they have nothing to fear from the Bulls who, in turn, face problems on both sides of the parquet and find it difficult to solve a single victory. 

Double at 1.88 by Stoiximan. 

We continue with one more game tomorrow, which comes from Rose Garden and it is about the Blazers hosts who welcome the Pacers. Portland is in bad luck, coming from six consecutive defeats and even four of them home. they were with Cavaliers and Washington in which they failed to score more than 88 and 95 points respectively, but also over 83 on the Thunder. It is not something aman agan aggressively though it is within the first fifteen with the X.NUMX points active. gets to score it gets clean and well the of the key, and the bench is very below par.

Against the Oregon club you will find the best defense and at the same time the worst league attack, as he concedes just 89.1 and scores 91.2. Frank Vogel's team is extremely defensive this season, with Hibbert, West and Mahinmi doing a great job under basket and Hill, Stephenson and George to be equally good peripherals. Besides, the Pacers percentages say it all and speak of 41.3% accuracy in the opponent's shots and 33% in the three-pointers. Indiana whether it plays at home or away is the same thing, since its defensive performance is not said to fall even far from Indianapolis, having put a "stop" (like the Grizzlies we mentioned in the previous text) in the best attacks of the league and the Blazers certainly do not have analogues of Denver, Lakers, Miami, Knicks and Dallas are in the top ten and no one managed to put over 89 in the Pacers

I will once again trust the Pacers defense, which has made me a player many times this year (and certainly not only me). The line is at 183.5 at this moment and seems fair to me, based on very low scores guests on a stable basis.

The Blazers are in an amazing position, coming from three wins in a row and 11 in their last 14 games, eight of which came in home games, at a time when the only defeats were in Sacramento, Lakers and Raptors. This awesome A series that was "built" by their excellent performances now brings them to the eighth position in the West with a record of 19-15, with the equivalent of its home games being 12-4. Portland has now made it clear even to the most skeptics (among them and I) that he will be among the contenders for a place that leads to the playoffs this year as well, thanks to the amazing performance of his key players, as chaos prevails from there and beyond. The stable and one of the best pf of the league , LaMarcus Adridge (20.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists), the awesome Damian Lillard (18.2 points, 6.5 assists, 3.4 rebounds) who seems to have "captured" the rookie award of the year and will soon beone of the big NBA stars, the reborn Nicolas Batum (16.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists) who is having the best season of his career and looks more all around (for Batum) than ever, but also the Matthews (15.5 points) , 2.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists) -Hickson (12.5 points, 11 rebounds), with the latter appearing to be fully adapted to the role and requirements of the position given to him by Terry Stotts, have "tied" and can now be considered and with the above TEAM, something that did not happen at the beginning of the season and until recently. However, despite the good image that Portland brings to the floor, a big "thorn" continues to be the defensive function, since it has the ninth worst defense with m. 99.2 points, as it allows accuracy to the opponent that reaches 46.3% (fourth worst), with things being clearly better regionally, where it accepts only 33.9% (seventh best) of the opponent's efforts behind the "bow". Doubtful but with the odds in his favor are given by Al dridge, who got out of yesterday's training program without any problems, while the injured Leonard will be out for another match.

On the other hand, the champions may be in first place in the East with a record of 23-10, however they are not in the best condition they could be. The big problem they face in rebounds - as it is the team that collects the second least in league with a tragic average of 39 per game - does not seem to find a solution and somehow in Miami they ended up choosing a seemingly good rebounder like Varnado. The 24-year-old pf / c was given a contract (after he was first cut after the end of the training camp, to then move on to the development league and then the Celtics, where in almost a month he played in five games) in the hope of getting a the ... chestnuts from the fire and to untie the hands of Spoelstra, who in the summer stated that the team does not need a five, since the position would be worthily filled by Bosh. Anyway, the Florida team comes from from defeat in Indiana and wants to return immediately to success, as recent is even the "cuff" from the Bulls. In the West, Lebron and his company are doing quite well so far, having passed through Houston, Denver, Phoenix and Dallas, knowing only the defeats in Memphis and Clippers, which in any case can still be considered in the program for the champions. If we exclude the next game in Sacramento, Miami will give three much more difficult matches than today, as will e In most of the cases that the Spoelstra team lost this year, the cause was the rebounds, which, as we said before, is the big "wound" of the Heat. Today it will face a team that is not much better in this field (41.3 rebounds for Blazers and nine less), while it will also have its substitute center out of action. With Lebron being consistently good - not as much as last year - with a 35-yard streak of 20+ points and without even having put his ... foot on the accelerator and Wade coming from a very good performance in Indiana and in general to increase the speed, the champions can, with a guide to last year's excellent performance in Portland, love a A quiet night and achieve their fifth victory in the West. It is doubtful whether Battier, who is suffering from a minor injury and did not train yesterday, will contribute.

Obviously there is no worse period to oppose the Blazers, however against Miami with the handicap being at 3-3.5 points I will be happy to take it. The champions show their good face this year in the West, while facing a team that like It's worth noting that with the exception of the Clippers and the Knicks, any other team in the bottom half of the rebounds that faced Miami left with a win, while they make an impression. the 107 points that Miami has achieved in its last three victorious visits to Portland, with both ending with 107-100 and last year with 107-93.

Early bet today, while the match is still unavailable to most companies as Portland has confirmed that their leading player, Olldridge, who has "won" ankle injury in the last game of his team against Hornets, will not fight. For Portland, we have mentioned in the past that it is a huge surprise that he has managed to remain in playoffs orbit in the competitive and "wild" West based exclusively on the players who make up his five. One of them, Hickson was for a lot of "burned paper" after his failed term in Kings, while few expected that Lillard in his rookie year would be capable of doing so much, combining scoring (with great accuracy in the tripe) and assists but also critical shots in the last minutes of several races that eventually judged the result in favor of his team. Next to him he stands well and better than last year and his contract renewed Batum, but he comes from injury and in the last matches he likes to shoot from the periphery without getting close to the basket. Who is left to fill the five above the above mentioned, Matthew, who also comes from injury and is doubtful if he will fight. Everyone else just completes the roster, it is a fact that all of them in many matches have not managed to score even a double-digit number of points. In fact, Meyerers Leonard is expected to start tomorrow instead of Oldridge, taking the shape of the home team quite a bit, and he has not enough experience so far with a limited time in his rune year and he.
Denver, on the other hand, is in very good shape with Chandler, with almost all of his remarkable players in the war, and comes from a major victory against Spurs. This is a team that can run with Lousson, the fastest maybe play maker of the championship, but also to change the pace with veteran Miller at the wheel. Galinari has begun and improves his odds by offering points from the periphery but also because of his height he can get close to the cart while he is the first to leave in surprise, Iguadala is a multi-tool in defense and attack while under the baskets there are Farid, McGee and Koufos who do a good job both defensively and rebounds. In general Denver has many solutions, pluralism in the attack and their record does not match how high they can reach as they have played a lot of games and against the theoretically better teams in the championship.
I expect the handicap to grow when the odds are generally open due to the absence of Oldridge but maybe also Matthew so I bet relatively early.
In the meantime options from the NBA can be found here where Bakounin continues to do well in his predictions, but also here with the new "northern1974" while for tonight (Wednesday to Thursday) there is another option you can see here.

The current program in the NBA is very light with only three games to be played and one of them being the Blazers-Spurs, which I will deal with. The hosts returned to victories after two consecutive defeats with the home victory over the Raptors ( 92-74), which they won mainly thanks to the absence of the opponent and less to their own superiority, since they shot with 0% (0-20) in the three-pointers. Of course, the fact that they played without Matthews and Batum something that will probably happen today, while they also had Lillard in a tragic night (9 points with 2-14 and 0-5 three points). However, the excellent performance of Aldridge (30 points with 11-19,12 rebounds, 2 steals . and 2 blocks), the assists given by Smith from the bench and only 7 errors were the main factors that brought the victory. Now the Oregon team counts a record 9-12 and 5-4 in Rose Garden that bring it to the 11th position of the West. For today's match against San Antonio, am Matthews and Batum are friends with the former not participating in yesterday's training program and the latter, although he got it out without any problems, not yet at 100% as revealed by Blazers coach Terry Stotts.As we have mentioned Portland relies on the players that make up his top five, as beyond that with the exception of some "flashes" of specific players he hardly manages to find help from the bench and especially in position five, where besides Leonard there is no other "pure" five on the roster and Hickson is forced to play there. 40.4 per match.

On the other hand, the Spurs suffered their fifth defeat yesterday and third away from home after losing to the Jazz (99-96), thus falling to second place in the West (behind the Thunder) with a record of 18-5 and 11-3 away. from the AT&T Center. The "spurs" as usual present a very serious person and go without ... brakes in the regular season, something that fails from their 10/12 dominance in the last two weeks (the other defeat was in Miami with 105-100 and Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Green are out of action), with the seven of them even being away from home. During this time there were many broadcasts for some of Greg Popovic's team rivals, such as in Washington, Orlando, Charlotte, but also in San Antonio on the Bucks and Houston. Today he travels to a headquarters from which he passed about a month ago, but he had a very difficult time, after prevailing 112-109, with the club of Rip City, however, to have Batum and on their floor normally Matthews something that probably will not happen today (at least for the second). The "black and whites" seem unstoppable offensively, as they are now the most productive team in the league with 105.5 points average, shooting with the awesome 48.2% (third best) and at least a remarkable 37.8% on three-pointers (seventh best), while defensively they are at normal levels, as they accept 97.3 points that bring them to the middle of the relevant table, not allowing accuracy over 43.5% (seventh best) and 34.6% on three-pointers (10th best). However, they are also strong in the field of rebounds where they collect 43.1 (ninth more), that is, where they are expected to dominate against their current opponent, although in the first match they did not do it. The Texans are one full and close-knit team, with huge chemistry and plenty of options. Besides, it is not accidental that it has six players with double-digit points, with two of them even coming from the bench, while the other five have an average of 5.5 points. unique absences for today those of Jackson and Leonard.

I'm going to have a big handicap for Greg Popovic as I see an easy victory with a double-digit point difference, especially if Nicolas Batum does not play. The spurs are superior in all areas and most importantly they have the possibility to take a large number of scores from their bench, which is not the case for the home team, who in the first game between them had 4 points from the bench, with San Antonio taking 63 back from 112 as a whole! As seen from the last matches of Spurs, Parker and his company e they do ... scratch in the score scorning the most they find on their way. That's what I expect to do today, getting a big difference early on.

After the shock home defeat by the Kings (99-80), with which they completed two consecutive and seven in the last ten matches, the Blazers welcome the Raptors having to face serious injury problems. In particular, Batum and Matthews are extremely doubtful. with the former in yesterday's statements about whether he will be ready for the match with Toronto revealing that: "I doubt it. The pain I have now is worse than yesterday (the day before yesterday)". The 23-year-old forward was suffering from back pain even before the game with Sacramento, however he tried to fight. A decision that turned out to be wrong, as after a fall he had the situation with his back injury worsened, with him of course leaving in time to offer his services for just 17 minutes. Something similar happened with his teammate Wesley Matthews , who at the end of the third period was found to have suffered a hip fracture, to return to normal in the fourth twelve minutes and after a fall he also had to leave limping. However, things with the 26-year-old guard look better, since in Asked if he would be able to give the present today, he said: "I'm much better than I was yesterday (the day before yesterday) and I'm happy with it, but I do not know yet if I will be able to play. I would definitely not play. But there is a big improvement from yesterday (the day before yesterday) until today and I hope for an even bigger one until tomorrow (today) ". The two" blows "that Portland received in combination with the very mediocre night in which the Aldridge found themselves (17p. with 5/14 shots, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks) and Lillard (12 points with 5/13 shots, 9 assists and 4 errors) and the non-existent help from the bench for another match (only 18 points and half from Babbitt) In fact, it is worth noting that the hosts shot with only 38,7% (29-75) and 38,1% (8-21) in three-pointers, while they also fell to 18 mistakes, with the Kings finishing the game with 41.9% shots (36-86), 47,4% (9-19) three-pointers and 14 steals. With that and the Portland record now stands at 8-12 , with the equivalent in Rose Garden being 4-4, which brings them to 12th place in the West.

On the other hand, we have a team that is by no means material for the penultimate position of the East, nor of course for the tragic record of 4-17. When it goes out of Canada, things get even worse, as it counts just one win-over of the Pacers with 74-72- in 13 matches. More specifically, in the West he goes from ... slap to slap, as he has 0 / 8.However, in general in many of his away games he was very competitive (e.g. in Brooklyn, Dallas, Denver, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Detroit and Charlotte), but without missing the defeats with their hands down in clearly much more difficult seats and with clearly superior capacity teams such as the Clippers, Jazz, Grizzlies, Thunder and Celtics. According to statistics, the "predators" are rightfully where they are, after shooting with the 5th worst 42.5% and the very average 34.5% on three-pointers, achieving only 96.6 points. On the contrary, they have the 2nd worst defense - and the worst in the East - accept 103.5 points, allowing accuracy with 46.3% (6th worst) and 39.1% on three-pointers (4th worst). However, based on material, their course is not justified, as they have a very talented and quality ensemble consisting of excellent shooters in the periphery such as DeRozan , Lowry and Bargnani (yes, this one is better to place him on the periphery, since he also plays), who are also the top scorers of the Canadians with 18.4 and 16.4 points respectively. From there and beyond for the minutes he takes Valanciunas also makes good appearances with 8.2 points and 5.3 rebounds, while reliable options with good shots are also on the bench, where Calderon, Kleiza, but also Amir Johnson come from, who give strength and rebounds. An excellent choice fails - at least until moment- and the addition of Pietrus, who in the four matches he played has a double-digit average of points, giving a score behind the arc.

I'm going to take the risk of doubles, although Toronto is not worthwhile away from home. However, Portland certainly has Batum off, and it is likely that Matthew will be the same. This means he will be deprived of the third and fourth goalscorer the 32.4 points of both of them will be missed. These points I find very unlikely to be found by some / some of the back ups, since any other eight players of the roster have . below 3.5 points. Which means Aldridge and Lillard should not be only to take an even greater number of efforts than they are already taking, but also to fire the opponent's basket. I will build on the situation in the Batum, Matthews statements and especially in the first one, which implicitly but clearly pointed out that he will not fight today I will not wait for Matthews to get involved or not, because if the second is done then it will be too late for the most beautiful performance we get at this moment

Changed for the best is this year's Bobcats, who are particularly strong at Time Warner Cable Arena. They come from three defeats, but they find it perhaps the best opponent to return to victory. Michael Jordan's team has a record of 7-8 (90-88), Mavericks (101-97 OT), Wizards (92-76), Bucks (102-98), and Raptors (98-97), having their five home games dominated by Pacers only the Suns (117-100) and Grizzlies (94-87) defeats. In fact, the capacity of "wild cats" is not limited to Charlotte, since he has managed to win two victories in Washington (108-106 OT) and Minnesota (89-87), and in general, except for a few exceptions, he has fought as the finale all the games he has given an independent seat. This is a very young age not only a team, with rookie Kidd-Gichrist and Taylor starting at the top five, along with Kemba Walker's sophomore and star. What is of special interest is that five players (six along with injured Henderson) have a two-digit average points, namely Walker (16,3), Sessions (15,9), Gordon (13,9), Mullens (12,9), Henderson (12,5), Kidd-Gilchrist (10,9), followed closely by Taylor (8,1) showing that this set has plenty of scoring solutions from either the starting five or the bench mainly with Sessions, Gordon). It may not be a terrible defensive or aggressive team, but opponents at her own and especially at Charlotte have so far shown that she wins them, with a weapon in the very strong (for Bobcats) region. The statistics tell her that she achieves an average of 94,9 points and accepts 100,5 which is 10 and 6, the worst active and passive respectively, while its 41,1 (second worse) and 32,7 (5 worse) shots are too bad. In addition, their respective opponents arrive 44,7% and 36% triple who are ranked in the middle of the relevant tables. Finally, it is one of the least mistaken groups with 14.7 and one of the most 8.9 stolen ones. For today, a unique surety absence is considered by Tyrus Thomas , when Gerald Henderson has a chance to return, something that if done, Bobcats will be very aggressive.

The Blazers, unlike their current rival, do not remind the team of the past few years. They may have one of the best (if not the best) rookie of this year's draft and one of the best four of the championship, but they are lagging behind in other things equally important. These are well below their moderate bench, which does not help at all aggressively, so the main ones are forced to take a long time to participate in each showdown, which undoubtedly affects the physical condition of everyone, but also the lack of a clean quintet (except the Leonard rookie) that also forces Hickson to compete in a position where the truth is that he does not hold it in particular. Note that in the last match of Portland and the win at Cleveland with 118-117 then from two extensions - which ended a four-point lead in the East - Lillard and Batum fought for 46 minutes, Aldridge and Matthews for 44 and 35 for Hickson. More generally, these average minutes are 37.3,39.1,38.2,37.2 and 29.5 respectively, while on the bench, other than Leonard (5,1) from the rest does not exceed 3 per race. Their record amounts to 7-10 and 3-6 outside Portland, while in the East they have suffered four defeats in their last five fights. This is 4's worst defense of the championship with an average of 101.8 points, the second worst in opponents fg percentage with 48.3 and 35.2 in the triplets (in the middle of the board). As for the attack (97.5 average), it performs a large number of attempts behind the bow, which is also true of 36.6% in the three-pointer (12 the best), while 43.6 is the only one with 8 at the end. Absences beyond Elliot Williams do not exist.

I will trust Bobcats for the first time this year, who find the ideal opponent in front of them to return to victories after three consecutive failures. Their bench is at least two classes inherent to Blazers, with very good shooters (Sessions, Gordon) who also help with the score, something that does not make him in Portland, while there is a solution for defense with Biyombo. I am also dominating the "wild" and the rebounds, as they are anyway stronger in the air than the their opponent, with 42.1 μ.ο versus 39.4 that is century third worse and 7.1 in blocks (fifth most) against 4.9.Oi Blazers usually lose ... eggs on their faces away, particularly in the East, with the victory over the Cavs apsychologiton personally not telling me something.

If we made a table with the most important absences of today's night, DeMarcus Cousins ​​for the Kings would be if not NOXNXX then surely within the triad. Keith Smart would therefore be deprived of one of his best player, who in the home match against the Spurs was unable to keep his nerves (prototype) in juxtaposition with a commentator of the "spurs", which resulted in being punished by the NBA with two races out of action. Sacramento will not have the first scorer (X NUMX points in 1 min average) and rebound (17,3 and 30,3 in the championship), while leading the "purple" to steals with an average of 9,8 per match. However, rookie Thomas Robinson is back then out for two Jerebko elbow matches in the winning match against the Pistons. The Kings have a record of 14-2, with their dominance coming hard and home to the Warriors (2-5) and Pistons (94-92) (105-103), Indiana (93-87 on prolongation), Lakers (92-80) and within San Antonio (106-98). a youthful team with plenty of options in guard positions, remarkable bench-based solutions that can and score, a strong periphery with good shooters, but also a good frontline. However, in many matches, it seems like an unconnected whole that operates mostly individually rather than group although the truth is that I have not seen them a lot this year.) But many are the ones who identify the problem in the position of a coach rather than anywhere else. Specifically, it has nothing to do with what we have become accustomed to in recent years, no worse attack with an average of 103 points and the worst score with just 90% and 97% in the three-pointer (third worse) .However, there is a big improvement defense where it receives an average of 86 points that bring it approximately in the middle of the relevant table , while having the ninth best fp percent with 91,4% and the second best in triplets with just 40,1%. Right in the middle of the tables is in rebounds and blocks with 29,5 and 98 respectively, while it has the fourth more steals with an average 42,5.

For the Blazers, we said some things yesterday (when we caught them under with Atlanta), such as the fact that their whole team is in the top five, as there is chaos beyond that. Of course, I am referring to the very poor quality she has a bench, from which she can not get points, something that was verified once again yesterday, with only 6 (out of two players) added to her bench. Yesterday's defeat, however, is mainly due to the very bad night that the its top five, which had as worst all Aldridge (14 points with 4-13, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 errors) and Lillard (12 points with 5-18 shots and 2-7 three points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists Of course, the many mistakes also played a catalytic role, stopping at a total of 4, but also in general the very low accuracy rate with 20% (36,1-30) and 83% three-pointers (26,1-6), while It is worth noting that they received 23 fast break points from the "hawks". They come from four defeats, after over Yesterday they also lost to Rose Garden by Spurs (26-112) and Clippers (109-103), but also to Dallas (90-114). Before the four consecutive defeats they had achieved their second victory in Houston (91 -95 in overtime), with the first coming to the premiere against the Lakers in Rip City (85-116) and an intermediate defeat in Oklahoma to have a record of 106-2 so far. Offensively they are not so bad, but they certainly do not remind last year's team in the middle of the offensive rankings with an average of 5 and a poor accuracy rate of only 97,1% (sixth worst), but eleventh best in the three-pointers with 41,8% ... cabooms to find a target Their big problem is defensively, where they have the fourth worst defense with an average of 35,7 passive points, allowing the opponent to score with a rate of 103% which is the second worst, but also the eighth worst in three points with 49,8% However, it is in the top ten teams with the fewest errors (36,9), but also sixth best in steals with 14,4. In prehistoric times, the Blazers have won 9,6 of their last seven games in Sacramento with two defeats coming last year where they lost hardly 5-104 and 103-95. No absences other than Eliot Williams .

I will go with the + 2.5 of the Blazers even though it is one of the teams I do not like at all this year, and that has to do with many different reasons. The reason that pushes me in the double concerns the very important absence of the Cousins ​​for the Kings they lose too much of their power aggressively but also in the air, where the young center is "the first violin". Moreover, the fact that most Blazers' fundamentals had very poor performance yesterday is another reason, since I do not expect a similar appearance today key players like Aldridge and Lillard a lot of risk or a specific option, but if after four defeats they have to win a match then this is the one for the Blazers. Just the ... NBA God let no backshot shoot on the target when they are on the parquet ....