Today’s Best Bets: NBA, College Hoops and NHL winners

Portland’s first half of a home-road back-to-back was as easy as it gets. The Trail Blazers beat up on poor Charlotte to the tune of 112-68 Wednesday, handing the Bobcats their 10th straight loss and their worst in franchise history. The Bobcats had no answer for the Blazers, now 10-1 at home. SportsOptions and Tony Finn contribute in today’s best bets.

Portland at Sacramento (+4, 190)

Portland should find the road tougher when it plays at Sacramento on Thursday night. Sacramento is the youngest team in the league with an average age of 24.3 and has taken its lumps, losing five in a row. This is the third of fourth season meetings with the Trail Blazers winning the first two. The Kings fell shy at Golden State on Tuesday, 93-90. Tyreke Evans just missed a triple-double with 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. “I take responsibility for a few things that I did out there that I won’t do again,” said Kings coach Keith Smart, picking his words carefully. “That’s between me and myself.” The Kings are 4-10 since Smart took over for the fired Paul Westphal.

Portland toyed with the Bobcats, who fell to a league-worst 3-20. The reserves basically played the entire second half. Sixth man Jamal Crawford led Portland with 24 points. “I don’t think I’ve played only 26 minutes since my first year in the league,” said Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge. The Blazers, who have won five in a row at Sacramento, shot 55 percent for the game and tied a season-high with 18 steals.

Guard Marcus Thornton (left thigh hematoma) said he wants to play Thursday but that the decision will be up to team doctors. Thornton has missed the Kings’ last four games. The team announced on Jan. 25 that tests had revealed the hematoma, and said that Thornton would miss one to two weeks. “I’m going to go with what the doctors say because they know best, but I’m hoping it’s tomorrow,” Thornton said

Play the Blazers and lay the points

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Nebraska at Northwestern (-7, 126)

Nebraska has had a full week to savor its first-ever Big Ten Conference road win, but if the Cornhuskers want to continue their rise up the conference standings, they will need to defeat another difficult opponent away from home on Thursday. Nebraska secured just its fifth true road win since the end of the 2008-09 season last Thursday by surprising Iowa 79-73 behind a career-high 25 points from Brandon Richardson. Although the Huskers have only two ranked opponents remaining on their schedule, the challenges are far from over. They begin a stretch of four games in 10 days in Evanston against a Wildcat team that has lost three of their conference games by a combined five points but already has a home win against No. 10 Michigan State to their credit. Nebraska leads the all-time series 3-1 although the teams have not met since 1999.

Despite being only the seventh-highest scoring team in the conference, the Wildcats feature two of the Big Ten’s top three scorers in John Shurna (19.0 points per game) and Drew Crawford (17.2), and the team continues to find its mojo on offense. Northwestern averages a conference-best 8.5 3-pointers and has shot above 40 percent behind the arc in seven of its last 14 games. However, during the Wildcats’ current three-game losing streak, they have failed to hit that mark.

Play the total OVER 126

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Nashville at Philadelphia (-120, 5.5u-110)

One can understand why Pekka Rinne didn’t want to see January come to an end. After all, the 29-year-old Finn tasted defeat just once during the month and was named the NHL’s Third Star in January. Well, February is upon us and Rinne will look to extend his career high winning streak to 11 consecutive games on Thursday when the Nashville Predators visit the Philadelphia Flyers. The Predators have won five in a row and 13 of their last 15 (13-2-0) to rocket up both the Central Division and Western Conference standings.

Veteran RW Jaromir Jagr returned from a groin injury and collected an assist in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. Jagr, 39, joined rookies Brayden Schenn and Matt Read on a line before being eased back with All-Stars Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell. “I was glad to play,” Jagr said sheepishly. “It didn’t matter what line. I was glad to play for the first time in 10 days. Probably it was better for me to start on a different line. Probably less pressure and I can slowly get into the game.”

Philadelphia continues to struggle in shootouts, winning just one of five such games this season. All told, the Flyers are 20-38 in shootouts.

Take Nashville in a low scoring affair — Predators 2, Flyers 1

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