The Portland Trail Blazers will look to solve some home-court problems when they await the Washington Wizards in their own arena, in another attempts to give their fans a reason to be pleased. However, as the Wizards feel the Blazers stole one from them in D.C. just 10 days ago, they’ll be looking to return the favor.
Wizards at Trail Blazers
Spread: Portland -5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: over/under 203 points (-110)
Huge third quarter propels Wizards past Pistons
The Washington Wizards outscored the Detroit Pistons 35-15 in the third quarter to break the game and win for the second time this season against this Eastern Conference rival. They had no trouble closing this one and ended up winning by a convincing 109-91 margin.
Trailing 52-46 at halftime, the Wizards opened the third quarter with a 17-0 run and held the Pistons without a field goal for 6 minutes, continuing to thrive on the defensive end. Thanks to another good game for third point guard Satoransky, the Wizards reserves held them in the game in the first half. Satoransky finished with 17 points and has 22 assists with no turnovers in the last four games. Beal was shut down by Bradley, scoring just 10 points on 11 field goal attempts, and had 7 of the Wizards’ 11 turnovers. Morris and Porter picked up the slack, combining for 40 points, 9 assists, and 4 blocks. Gortat double-doubled with a dozen of both points and boards, and had 4 steals. The Wizards were 48.3 percent from the field and held the opposition to just 44.3 percent shooting. For the second game in a row, they have troubles containing interior force, as Drummond put up a massive all-around line, but were terrific around the perimeter.
John Wall is not expected back yet, not for another week or two, so the Wizards will have to continue to roll with Frazier and Satoransky handling his duties. This is a tail-end of a tough back-to-back set, as Washington is visiting Utah tonight, and the physicality of that game, as well as traveling schedule, could affect their energy in Portland.
Place: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon
Date/Time: Tuesday, December 5th, 2017. 10:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: NBCSNW, NBCSWA, Sportsnet One
The Blazers lose to Cousins, Pelicans
The Portland Trail Blazers opened up their last game with a 31-17 lead over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans, who played without their star power forward Anthony Davis but got outscored 66-34 over the next two quarters to lose their second consecutive home game.
Behind Cousins’ 38 points and red-hot shooting from beyond the arc, the Pelicans scored 123 points on the usually solid Portland defense. The Blazers tried with Nurkic, Ed Davis, and Meyers Leonard, and nothing worked. They tried bullying him and booing him, but the attention he took left the rest of the defense spotty, and New Orleans shooters made the best of it by hitting 13 of their first 21 three-point tries. By the time they finally started missing, the Blazers were buried so deep that they only mustered a late run to get the deficit to -5, in the final minute. Damian Lillard had 29 points and eight assists and reserve Napier finally broke from a recent slump with 15 points off the bench, but Portland didn’t get enough from its two other main contributors as CJ McCollum started 2-for-12 from the floor and finished with 17 points while Jusuf Nurkic had his usual bad game with eight points and four rebounds. They ended up taking 19 more shots than their opponents, as they had 9 offensive rebounds and committed just 5 total turnovers but shot just 44.8 percent compared to the Pelicans 52.3 percent from the field. Leonard, previously ripped by home fans for his bad outings, responded by scoring 17 points on 9 attempts in just 16 minutes, so he earned himself a larger role in the rotation.
There are no new injuries to report for the Blazers. They’ll also have four days in between this and the next game, at home vs. the Rockets, so there’s no reason not to give their best shot against the Wizards.
Washington Wizards at Portland Trail Blazers Game Trends & Prediction
Prior to the game in Salt Lake City later today, the Wizards have sported a 12-10 record against the spread and 8-14 on the totals market. They are making money for their backers on the road, where they’ve gone 8-3 ATS, and the most unders also happened in those games – the Wizards are 3-8 when playing outside Washington.
Coming into this game, the Portland Trail Blazers failed to cover in four of their last six, and it dropped their ATS record to 8-12-3, testifying of the bad season thus far despite the straight up record. Their struggles are at home, which is very unusual considering that they have had good fan support and took pride in playing well in Portland. This season, they managed just 3-8-2 in Moda Center and 3-10 against the total points lines. They are unable to break free of the poor early-season shooting and are keeping the pace slow. This resulted in 7-16 O/U overall record.
Admi-Rank: Two home losses largely offset the good ending to the road trip, so the Blazers are back below the NBA average once again. The Wizards have mixed some positive results with tight losses, but have coped well in Wall’s absence. That’s the reason for their arrow pointing up.
The Trail Blazers won the previous meeting between two sides, 108-105, as a part of the three-game win streak that they carried back home from their Eastern trip. It was also one of the two consecutive games in which the Wizards wasted a big lead in final minutes, as they lead 94-77 with 8 minutes to go. McCollum and Nurkic came alive in the decisive moments, while the Wizards panicked. Should this game go to the wire, as it’s likely to do, the Blazers will be more confident because of their success the last time around.
Portland has been set as a 5-point home jolly, since it doesn’t make much sense unless you are really counting on Wizards resting someone or coming disinterested. It’s a tough double for them, for sure, but the fair number is +3, or extremely conservatively, +3.5. I’m taking the away side as soon as they clear the Jazz game without injuries. The total has been set better, at 203, but it’s still offering a large enough value to go after the plus points. If you are reluctant to believe that the Wizards can score on tired legs, keep in mind that the fact that they are playing with no days rest actually works in your favor – this affect teams defenses more than the offense. Go for both wagers and double your profit.
My Pick: Washington +5 (-110)
Total: Over 203 points (-110)
