Pick ‘n’ roll: Saturday’s best NBA bets

Atlanta Hawks at Orlando Magic (-8.5, 179.5)

The Magic lost three of four to Atlanta during the regular season, but you can probably throw those out the window. Orlando seems to be a different team when it reaches the playoffs. Stan Van Gundy’s squad won the East two years ago and did not lose a single game en route to last season’s conference finals before falling to the Celtics in six.

Among Orlando’s 2010 playoff victims was none other than Atlanta. In a record-setting series, the Magic swept the Hawks by abined 101 points — the biggest margin in NBA history.

The Hawks should at least get a game this time around, but it may note on Saturday. Josh Smith missed three games recently with a knee injury and played sparingly in the final two regular-season contests. Jason Collins sat out the last four games due to a sprained ankle. Both should play in Game 1, but they could be limited.

Collins is a little-used reserve, but he is valuable when Atlanta goes up against Dwight Howard andpany. Van Gundy told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after an 85-82 Hawks’ win on March 30 that Collins played “the best defense I’ve seen all year on Dwight.”

Orlando, meanwhile, won five of its last six regular-season games at the Amway Center.

Pick: Magic

Portland Trail Blazers at Dallas Mavericks (-5, 186)

The Mavericks have flamed out in the first round in three of the last four playoffs. But they are not concerned about that as they try to end the streak of underachieving.

“I’m not into analyzing the past,” coach Rick Carlisle told ESPNDallas. “This is a new situation. It’s an exciting time. We’re going to go into this thing guns blazing.”

Dallas is also going into the postseason with a nice four-game winning streak (4-0 ATS). The team won three of those contests by double digits, including a 25-point rout of Phoenix last Sunday and a 32-point destruction of New Orleans on Wednesday.

Carlisle announced that DeShawn Stevenson will replace Roddy Beaubois in the starting lineup at shooting guard for the playoffs. That should energize the Mavs, as Beaubois looked out of his league as a starter after returning from a foot injury in February.

Portland and Dallas split four regular-season meetings, the home team winning every time.

Pick: Mavericks

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