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The Memphis Grizzlies take on the Portland Trailblazers for Saturday afternoon's Western Conference Play-In Game 1 with a line of Portland -6.5. This one has moved up from -6. Use bonus code G911 to claim the BetUS generous welcome bonus (the max bonus is $2500).
Saturday's result will determine if another game is played between the two teams as part of this new Play-In tournament format.
The Grizzlies (34-39) finished ninth and the Trail Blazers (35-39) eighth in the Western Conference in the regular season, earning a head-to-head matchup in which Portland, as the higher seed, must be defeated twice in order to be denied the West's final playoff spot.
A Trailblazers win Saturday means they advance to playing the top-seeded LA Lakers. If the Grizzlies win, a rematch would be played Sunday, with that winner advancing to face the Lakers.
Portland beat Memphis back on July 31, however, that game was won in overtime. Prior to that game, the home team had won seven straight. Only two of those games were won by fewer points than the current spread. Portland would have covered both times using today's spread. This game one of course is being played on a neutral court.
Ideally, you would want to get Portland on the money line, but the price is too high at -275 (lowest Gambling911 could find at Heritage and 5Dimes). The competitive nature of this series makes the -6 spread less enticing.
Needing a win to avoid falling into 10th place and having their season end in Thursday's late game, the Trail Blazers got 42 points from red hot Damian Lillard in a 134-133 victory over Brooklyn.
"I would say that we were happy (and) relieved," Portland coach Terry Stotts said after the game. "We're excited to be in the play-in round. We are where we wanted to be. I don't think anybody is over the moon right now. We know that we got a tough opponent in Memphis, so there was no real time to celebrate."
Lillard finished the eight-game reschedule as one of the top scorers in the bubble at 37.6 points per game, shooting 49.7 percent overall and 43.6 percent on 3-pointers.
The Grizzlies are 2-7 Against The Spread in their last 9 games overall and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 when their opponent allows 100 points or more in their previous game.
Portland is 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 games overall but are 2-11-3 ATS in their last 16 Saturday games.
The Grizzlies, playing without star forward Jaren Jackson Jr., got triple-doubles from Jonas Valanciunas and Ja Morant in a 119-106 win over Milwaukee.
The win was just Memphis' second in eight games since the restart.
"We're not going home," Valanciunas said after the win. "We're going to fight until the last second."
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
