Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Lakers betting tips and predictions for Monday’s NBA game at Moda Center. The Lakers are looking to build on their huge win at Golden State as they travel to Portland for a date with the Trail Blazers. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Portland Trail Blazers
The Blazers are actually trailing in the regular season series 2-1, these two teams last met in the final week of January and it was the Lakers that came out on top in this same building. Damian Lillard didn’t have the best of shooting nights in that game, so he will be looking to make amends here.
Defense has once again become a big issue for the Blazers, in their last 5 games they’ve given up an average of 126.4 points per game, winning games with that kind of effort just isn’t possible in today’s NBA. They are just 2-point favorites heading into tonight’s game, which isn’t all that surprising considering they’ve covered the spread just 7 times in their last 20 games and only once in 5 at home. Jusuf Nurkic, Justise Winslow and Jerami Grant are all out, so the depth has taken quite a hit.
Los Angeles Lakers
LA celebrated a massive 109-103 victory at Chase Center a couple of nights ago which ended a 3-game losing streak. They did it without Lebron James who missed his 2nd consecutive game, the defense has improve significantly in his absence with the Bucks scoring just 115 and the Warriors 103 points. Whether or not James plays tonight remains to be seen, his status is officially set at questionable as he recovers from a foot injury.
The Lakers have a good track record in games vs the Blazers having won 4 of the last 6, and covered in 6 of the last 9 meetings. Newly acquired D’Angelo Russell had a solid game in his debut with 15 points and 6 assists while shooting 50%. Anthony Davis didn’t have the best of shooting nights vs Golden State, but his play on defense is what made all the difference for LA.
The tempo will go up against the Blazers regardless of James playing or not, so the question is can the Lakers keep up with Portland? They’ve been able to in 2 of the 3 meetings this season, Davis will be a tough match-up for them down low with Nurkic being out. This will be a huge win for whoever gets it, I’m taking the underdog Lakers.
Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Lakers Predictions & Odds
With the Lakers concentrating on defense quite a lot more over their last 2 games, I think this is a good spot to bet the under with the projected total being set at a massive 238 points. None of the 3 meetings this season came close to that number, plus the two teams are averaging just 214.9 points per game in the last 10 meetings.
The under has cashed 8 times during that stretch, plus if we look at just games at Moda Center between the two teams the under is 5-1 in the last 6 played. Both teams are missing several key players, so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to their pace numbers which are among the highest in the NBA. Lakers win this one playing lock down defense, back the under.
