NBA Playoffs Picks Houston Rockets (1-0) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (0-1): Throughout the NBA regular season, the Portland Trail Blazers had been near unbeatable at the Rose Garden, posting a record of 34-7. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the Houston Rockets (20-21 on the road) from coming into the Blazers’ fortress, punching them in the mouth, and taking home-court advantage right off their hands with a 108-81 victory.
Tonight is game 2 of this heated Western Conference series, as the 4th seeded Trail Blazers look to even out the series at 1 game apiece before traveling south to the Lone Star State, for what could be crucial games 3 and 4 against the (5) Rockets. 
Oddsmaking NBA Playoffs Picks experts at SBGglobal.com believe that Game 2 of this series will go as follows: the Portland Trail Blazers [-5½], have been listed as the Sports Odds favorites to win a much needed game against the surprising underdogs, Houston Rockets [+5½].
The opening tipoff for tonight’s game has been scheduled for just after 10 PM ET (7 PM PT) and it can be seen nationwide on NBATV.
Needless to day, Tuesday night’s game can’t come soon enough for the Blazers, as they are eager to put an embarrassing loss behind. What head coach Nate McMillan is trying to accomplish for game 2, is to get his players to grasp what they need to do rather than wasting time dwelling on what they should have done in game 1. The OVER/UNDER for tonight’s NBA Playoffs Picks: Houston Rockets vs. Portland Trail Blazers has been totaled at a combined 184 points scored at the end of the night.
“We know we can play better than we played,” said McMillan. “We know we’ve got to play better than we played. That’s where we are. We lost Game One, it was a bad performance by us. They pretty much did whatever they wanted and had control over that game. We know we’ve got to play a much better ballgame and we’re very capable of doing it.”
In particular, McMillan addressed and emphasized doing a better job defending the Big Wall of China. “He’s a huge challenge because you’re talking about a guy, a center, who can score, pass and he’s smart on the block,” said McMillan of Yao Ming. “And then he’s 7-6, so it’s a huge challenge. They pretty much always have an outlet when things go wrong with their offense in the sense that because you have to play (Yao) — whether you front him or play behind him — he is an outlet because you’re committing possibly two players to him, so other guys will be open and it’s just a matter of them making their reads. He’s a huge challenge.
“So how do you stop him? You don’t necessarily stop him. You hope that he misses or you take away the post ups by double teaming. I think you have to mix it up.”
