The Portland Trail Blazers (4-1) try to bounce back from their first loss of the season when they host the 1-4 Houston Rockets on Friday night. Portland got a dose of reality in Wednesday’s 119-98 loss to Miami, and them being just -4 point favorites against the Rockets suggest a losing streak may be coming for Portland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This game opened at Portland -6 and has been bet down to -4 which at first glance looks like a trap play. The Trail Blazers have been underdogs in all five games in their 4-1 start, but they should be 6-7+ point favorites against the one win Rockets. Houston is coming off a 109-101 loss to Utah<\/a> on Wednesday with all four of their defeats this season coming by 7+ points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Houston is a very young team and there’s going to be some growing pains this year, but the Rockets do look like they have some depth with five different players scoring at least 14+ ppg this season. Rookie Jabari Smith<\/strong> has 9+ rebounds in three straight games and had 21 points in the win over the Jazz last Monday. Both Jalen Green<\/strong> and Kevin Porter, Jr.<\/strong> are averaging over 21+ points in the Rockets back court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n