Portland Trail Blazers vs Boston Celtics betting tips and predictions for Friday’s NBA game at Moda Center. Boston has a chance to sweep the regular season series against Portland as the two teams meet for the 2nd and final time this season. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Portland Trail Blazers
Going on a 4-game losing streak has all but eliminated the Portland Trail Blazers from reaching the play-in tournament. They’re now 2.5 games back from the 10th placed Oklahoma City Thunder, and with a pretty difficult 13 games ahead of them their chances of making it are very slim. To top it off their best player Damian Lillard is bothered by a calf injury, Jerami Grant is questionable with a quad issue and Justise Winslow is out indefinitely with an ankle problem.
That’s been the story of the Blazers season, injuries have just destroyed yet another prime year of Damian Lillard. Boston beat them pretty easily in the first meeting of the season about a week ago, and with just 2 wins in 9 games vs East teams, I’m not rating their chances high for tonight’s game.
Boston Celtics
Although they haven’t been as consistent lately, the Celtics have been able to pull of 3 wins in their last 4 games which keeps them in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. However, with the Philadelphia 76ers lurking behind them by just 1 game, the pressure is on the Celtics to keep winning. The Cs are in midst of a 6-game road trip right now, they too have injury concerns with Jayson Tatum being questionable and Robert Williams being out.
It’ll be up to Jaylen Brown once again to lead the offense, he just had 43 and 35 points in his last 2 games. There’s one thing the Celtics can still rely on and that’s their defense. They just held the Timberwolves to 102 points in their last game, I expect them to put in the effort in tonight’s game as well.
With the Cs holding Portland to just 93 points in the first meeting a little over a week ago, I’m fairly confident they’re the better team here even if Tatum doesn’t play. 5 of the last 7 meetings went Boston’s way, they’re also 8-2 SU in their last 10 vs Western Conference opponents. Back the road team to cover.
Portland Trail Blazers vs Boston Celtics Predictions & Odds
It’s a clash of different styles tonight at Moda Center. The Celtics are 11-23-1 on the O/U in their road games, while the Blazers are 20-12-1 in games played at home. Which style will prevail? Judging by the first meeting of the season, we could be in for a slightly slower paced game as we only saw 208 points in that game.
Boston has the 4th best ranked defensive efficiency this season, with Lillard being slowed down by his calf injury and Jerami Grant possibly not playing, I’m just not sure where the Blazers points will come from. In 3 of their last 4 games they were able to put up just 107, 110 and 93 points. I think the Celtics make a statement with another tight game at the back, holding the Blazers to under 100 points. Let’s go with the under.
