Portland Trail Blazers vs New Orleans Pelicans betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s game in the NBA. Two teams on winning streaks collide at Smoothie King Center as the New Orleans Pelicans host the Portland Trail Blazers. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Portland Trail Blazers
Damian Lillard is finally waking up and so are the Portland Trail Blazers. Dame dropped 43 on the Charlotte Hornets on Friday to end a 7-game losing streak and then followed that up with a 32 point burst against the Memphis Grizzlies over the weekend. It’s definitely been a welcome sight for all Blazer fans, who have been disappointed with a 13-18 start to the season. Portland ranks only 11th in the Western Conference and they’ve won just 2 of their 13 road games this season. Health has been an issue all season long, but aside from C.J. McCollum and Cody Zeller they don’t have any major absentees at the moment. They’ve not had the best of records on the road at New Orleans lately covering just 3 times in the last 10 meetings, however this is a perfect opportunity to improve on that.
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans have also turned things around slowly in the month of December. They’ve won 3 of their last 4 games and are coming off a 116-112 OT win over the Milwaukee Bucks at home. With no Zion Williamson comeback in sight, this team has relied on other players to carry the offensive load, so it’s not always up to Brandon Ingram to score 30+ points. One area they’ll have to improve moving forward if they want to make the play-in tournament is their defense. They rank only 25th in defensive efficiency and having lost the last 3 head-to-head vs Portland that’s definitely something they’ll have to look at before tonight’s game.
Both teams are missing an elite player here, but with Dame’s recent awakening I’m leaning more towards the Blazers here. They’ve beaten the Pelicans 6 times in 10 games, including the last 3 played last season. Give me the Blazers to cover.
New Orleans Pelicans – Portland Trail Blazers Predictions & Odds
Portland -1.5 Point Spread is available at -110 odds on bet365
I’ll give you several reasons to back the over in this one. In the last 3 meetings the two teams are averaging 231 points per game and the total has gone over twice. That number is even higher in the last 10 meetings at 232.9 per game. New Orleans games usually trend towards the over more often than not. In their last 12 the over has landed 8 times, including 4 of their last 5 at home. The Pelicans have the 6th worst defensive record at home allowing 110.1 per game, while the Blazers are even worse on the road allowing 114.5 per game. So neither team puts a lot of emphasis on stopping teams, they prefer outscoring them to win games. That’s a recipe for a high scoring game right there. Lillard and Ingram should both have really good games as I don’t anyone on either roster being able to stay in front of them. The last Pelicans home game finished with 228 points scored, I’m expecting something similar in tonight’s game. Let’s back the points in this one.
Over 219.5 Total Points is available at -110 odds on bet365
