The 7-10 Portland Trailblazers will hit the highway to face the 7-8 Charlotte Bobcats in an NBA pro basketball game on Monday night. Tip off time from Charlotte is scheduled for 7PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by the NBA League Pass Channel.
The current NBA odds from this game has the home team Charlotte Bobcats favored by -1 ½ points with an over under line of 194 points. We have seen no early line movement on the total but a ½ point move on the Bobcats as they opened as a -1 point favorite a few hours ago.
Last year in the lockout year the teams met once and it was Portland with the 112-68 annihilation of the Bobcats as a -15 point favorite. Trend: Portland Trailblazers are 5-1 ATS in their past seven meetings with the Charlotte Bobcats
The Trailblazers are just 3-7 on the road this season. This will be the sixth game of their seven game Eastern road trip. They are 1-4 on the trip with their only win coming on Saturday in a 118-117 road victory against Cleveland as a +1 ½ point underdog. The offensive outburst we saw from Portland was something rare for this club on the road in 2012. Away from the Rose Garden the Trailblazers average 93 points a game along with 41% shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge leads the team in scoring with 20 points and 7 ½ boards a game. The Trailblazers backup guard play as been just as bad as last season and it shows up in the defensive numbers as the club allows 48% shooting to their opponents.
The Bobcats have been one of the pleasant surprises this season. After fifteen games they have seven wins which matches their win total from their 7-59 season a year ago. Unfortunately they were 7-5 and currently sport a three game losing streak. They come off a 104-98 home loss to Philadelphia on Friday. Charlotte has struggled big time this season shooting the basketball as they make just 41% of their shots. That’s usually the case when four of your top five scorers happen to be guards. One of the reasons for their big turnaround on the year is they limit mistakes and turnovers. Kemba Walker leads the team with 16 points a game. Four of their top five scores shoot less than 40% from the field.
