The undefeated Los Angeles Clippers will play outside Staples Center for the first time this season on Thursday evening, when they are scheduled to face the Trail Blazers in Portland. Rip City has also been successful so far, so this meeting is a perfect opportunity to make a statement for whoever comes out of it as a winner.
Clippers at Trail Blazers
Spread: Portland -1.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 216 points (-110)
The Clippers get a small revenge over Utah
Recently, the L.A. Clippers have the Jazz number when they play at the Staples Center. They’ve won 19 of their 21 meetings in LA, so those two losses in the playoffs of the last season sting really bad. Tuesday night 102-84 victory was a small retribution, but at the same time, another affirmation of that the new Clippers are a team to be counted on. After smacking up miserable Suns and Lakers, like most teams will do, this one really counts in the standings.
Despite what you might think by looking at the final margin of victory, this was not an easy victory. The Clippers have created separation multiple times, but could not sustain the same level and allowed the Jazz to climb back to the game. The Clippers best quarter was the third, when they used a 9-0 run to re-energize themselves and build a 21-point lead. The Jazz got hot from the outside in the middle of the last period, shrinking the Clippers lead once again, but the Clippers managed to hold the fort in the last five minutes and pull another 12-2 run.
Austin Rivers replaced injured Teodosic in the starting lineup, and played well. In fact, the entire unit was playing on a high standard, shooting and defending well. Griffin led the team in scoring with 22 points, but each starter scored in double digits. Jordan added 18 rebounds and Beverley hit 4-of-7 three-pointers to outplay Rubio on both parts of the floor. The game meant much to the Clippers, evidenced by the minutes’ distribution – no starter played less than 35 minutes and Beverley logged 43 for the game. The Clippers will have the same squad available for this game.
Place: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon
Date/Time: Thursday, October 26th, 2017. 10:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: NBCSNW
Work on the glass paying off for the Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers will take any win, ugly or not, and won’t apologize. They won the home opener on Tuesday night, but it was not a performance they hoped to show their fans. With the New Orleans Pelicans visiting, the backcourt duo of Lillard and McCollum was supposed to dominate their counterparts as the Pels big guys would provide the leverage inside for the guests. Well, the theory proved faux, at least for one game. Lillard struggled shooting the ball, missing his first nine shots and collecting just three made field goals the entire game, and McCollum left it late, scoring 16 of his 23 points in the final quarter. The Blazers also got lucky a bit, as Anthony Davis had to leave the game after only five minutes due to a minor knee injury. Still, a win is a win, and it was earned. The Blazers earned it by a most fundamental of all basketball actions – rebounding.
In four games played so far, the Blazers collected 213 total rebounds. Their opposition total? 148. That’s more than 16 rebounds of a difference per game. More rebounds means extra possessions, and a way to sustain poor shooting nights like on Tuesday. Aided by Davis’ absence, the Blazers outrebounded the Pels 63 to 42, allowing just 4 offensive rebounds by boxing out and overpowering the rivals. Cousins still caused much trouble, almost winning the game by himself before the Blazers ripped off a 21-8 run to start the final period. Nurkic continued his sluggish start to the season, getting into foul trouble early, but the backups stepped in admirably. Swanigan and Ed Davis collected 20 rebounds in limited minutes, and the rookie played with an extra bounce to finish with a team-high +17 in the plus-minus (tied with McCollum).
They know that they escaped with a win on Tuesday, but bad shooting night happen to all teams. They are healthy and hungry and will do just fine as long as they don’t overcommit to just a single element of the game.
Los Angeles Clippers at Portland Trail Blazers Game Trends & Prediction
You would have cashed in playing the Clippers so far, as they beat the expectations and covered each time. 3-0 ATS is simply screaming ‘Paul who?’, but let us not get ahead of ourselves and see how they play in a hostile atmosphere. The Clippers are also 0-3 against the total points line, playing under three times in a row.
With a good win over the Pelicans, the Blazers have yet to lose your money this season, much like the Clippers. The only difference is that they only managed to push it in the lone defeat in Milwaukee. They tend to play better at home, where they’ll play 9 of the next 10 games, so it’s a great time to jump on their bandwagon. They too played more unders this season, going 1-3 against the over/under so far, with the only exception in Milwaukee again.
A unique ranking system – AdmiRank helps you understand how good NBA teams are on a scale to 100. The Trail Blazers have a certain continuity that helped them early on in this season, but have still emerged a bit better than expected. The Clippers are also uptrending, especially after knocking off a really good team for the first time this season in their last game. The visiting team holds a slight edge that will be neutralized if you consider team health and home court advantage of the Blazers.
Lillard usually bounces back following a bad game, but he’ll have to face Beverley next, so McCollum better be ready to exploit his matchup. Again, the Blazers bigs will have their hands full of work with the Clippers duo, but Griffin and Jordan are playing a different game. As long as they can stay even on the glass, they’ll like their chances. The Blazers have more depth and might wear them down, so the last thing the visitors would like to face is an early deficit.
The market opened with Portland a tiny favorite to win, and that’s usually quite tempting with teams of similar qualities. However, the price is too low to accept, so I’m going to wait and see if I can catch a contrarian bet should the punters choose the different side. The lowest I could go is Portland ml -108, so that’s what’s I’m going to target. My pick for you comes on the total points offer, which is quite surprising to be frank. With recent streak clearly in favor of the under side, and the fact that even these small samples are giving us a much better picture of who this year’s Portland and LA Clippers are, plus Teodosic’s injury and fitting matchups, the bookmakers should have set the line lower than 216. I know it’s uneasy to play minus points with teams that can explode at any point, but that’s where the value is.
My Pick: (no wager at the moment, but if you can get Portland moneyline -108, go for it)
Total: under 216 points (-110)
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