NBA - 823 Portland Trailblazers @ 824 Los Angeles Lakers
Projected Line: LA Lakers by 13 points
Portland is a super favorable matchup for the Lakers. Both teams have pretty much the same record, so I don't believe the Lakers will show lack of effort tonight. Portland has been losing gas lately, something natural as they don't have depth on their roster and they have two starters banged up. Wesley Matthews didn't even play on their last game and he is doubtful for tonight, while Nicolas Batum has been battling with a right wrist injury (38.7% FG on the last 10 games). Portland's interior defense is just horrible and they have been also terrible on rebounding by grabbing just 39.6%, 41.6%, 39.9% and 44.3% of the rebounds on their last four games! They have been allowing their opponents to shoot 66% FG at the rim on their last 10 games and 71% FG on their last 5 contests, so they will get absolutely crushed by a fresh and motivated Dwight Howard tonight.
If that wasn't enough, Portland has a poor pick and roll defense as well, as Damian Lillard is a poor defender and Portland's frontcourt isn't physical enough to cover space on the pick and rolls. The result of that is Portland's defense being ranked #30 in the league in pick and roll roll man defense with 1.08 PPP allowed! The Lakers's offense has been excellent on pick and rolls lately, as they are #5 in the league on pick and roll ball handler plays with 0.83 PPP for the season, but with 0.88 PPP on their last 10 games and 0.96 PPP on their last 5 games!
The head to head between these two teams is at 1-1 right now. Both teams won their home game and in the last game, even though Howard was far from the level that he showed against Boston, he still had 7-13 FG, 21 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks in 30 minutes, while J.J. Hickson did nothing on offense with 0-7 FG, 2 points and 8 rebounds! Of course the Lakers's main defensive problem continues being their transition defense, but they won't get exposed by the Blazers on this area, as Portland is just #22 on transitions with 1.08 PPP and #27 on fast break points per game with 9.3 ppg! Therefore, I expect a very easy win for the Lakers tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 824 Los Angeles Lakers (-9) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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