Portland at Houston

Portland has a stellar home record, but they are just over .500 on the road and have to open at Houston where the Rockets are 33-8 SU and 6-2 ATS at home against a team with a winning road record. This is a tough matchup for Portland as Houston loves to run-and-gun, and the Blazers bench is suspect. Portland role players Thomas Robinson, Mo Williams, and C.J. McCollum have been an inconsistent unit. The Blazers are 2-5 ATS playing on three or more days rest and 1-9-1 ATS in their last 11 Conference Quarterfinals games. Houston's James Harden and Dwight Howard are two of the NBA's 15 best players, each coming off incredible campaigns, and the Rockets rested down the stretch to get Howard and Pat Beverly healthy, which will pay big dividends here, especially at home. Houston won three of four regular season meetings, and the Blazers are 3-8-1 ATS in the last 12 meetings. Play Houston in Game One and also take the UNDER in the first-half. This total is set at a ridiculous 108 points, which discounts how playoff games are played. It also ignores that at home this season, the Rockets kept opponnents to just 49.0 points in the first half on average. And under Kevin McHale, the Rockets are 37-22 UNDER in the first-half at home after an ATS loss. Go with Houston and the first-half UNDER in this one.