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Game time and location: Wednesday, April 15, 8 p.m. EST – American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Projected starting lineups:
Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard, Allen Crabbe, Alonzo Gee, LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez
Dallas Mavericks: Rajon Rondo, Raymond Felton, Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva, Amar’e Stoudemire
The Trail Blazers visit the Mavericks in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Portland and Dallas are locked into the fourth and seventh seeds respectively, so this game doesn’t mean much but both teams would like to get some last minute momentum before the playoffs start. It’s really a waiting game for both teams because neither knows who they will be facing in the first round. The main focus for both Dallas and Portland is to get healthy and geared up for the playoffs.
Portland has suffered a ton of injuries and are backpedaling into the playoffs right now. They lost the last three, but that’s not even important to them while they remain hurt. Aldridge looks to be back in a limited role vs. Dallas but Portland is without Nicolas Batum, Arron Afflalo and CJ McCollum. The Trail Blazers have really been a different team since the loss of Wesley Matthews, but they look to turn it around and stun their opponent when the playoffs start. Wednesday night vs. Dallas is a good time to get some young players momentum for the postseason.
Dallas is 4-3 in the month of April but they are fighting the injury bug as well. The biggest thing for them is getting Chandler Parsons back. They also lost Devin Harris to injury the other night. The Mavericks will likely be the underdog in the first round of the playoffs and right now getting healthy and rested is most important for them. Just like Portland, Dallas will use Wednesday night to get role players some momentum.
The key for this match up is depth for both teams. Both Dallas and Portland will be resting players so we will likely see a group of players we don’t know much about. The team that has the more effective bench will win the game. I think Portland will edge out Dallas simply because of Aldridge and Lillard playing compared to the lack of star power in Dallas’ current lineup.
Prediction: Portland 94 Dallas 90
Brian Brennan is a Portland Trail Blazers writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @b2brennan.
