The Gambler: Portland Trailblazers At New Jersey Nets-Feb. 23, 2010

Opponent: New Jersey Nets, Line: -7.5  

Gambler's Record: 20-21-1

"Cripple Fight!" -Cartman

The bruised, battered and broken Trailblazers take on the anemically bad Nets. The story of Portland's season has been the comically horrific number of injuries that have reduced a young and promising team to a nightly guessing game of who's healthy.

The Nets have been historically bad in a 'tanking for the first pick' sort of way. They have some good players, but they also have a new Russian owner that is angling for a new arena and wouldn't mind putting his stamp on the franchise with the number one pick (what conspiracy?).

That being said, yikes.

Portland is the better team, but this line it too high. Since Batum has returned, Nate has barely been able to make it two weeks without tinkering with lineups and jerking people's minutes around. The departure of Outlaw and Blake was supposed to lead to a set rotation, but the second guessing has already begun and it is impossible to put that genie back in the bottle. That will be a theme for the rest of the season.

Basically we are back to flipping a coin on a nightly basis for whether or not the boys in Red and Black are going to cover. I love the team, I love the talent, but who is going to show up and how many minutes are they going to get? Your guess is as good as mine (and apparently Nate's as well).

Blazers win, but it's closer than it should be. Take the Nets.