Portland Trail Blazers vs Washington Wizards
Betting Spread – Blazers -3. Total 241
Alright boys its about that time of the week again where we bring you an NBA article this week, we have Tyler bringing us a breakdown & a few different looks in the Trail Blazers vs Wizards game. The Blazers are coming into this game on fire winning and covering the spread in their last six games while the over has hit four of those six games. The Wizards come into this one on a three-game winning streak covering the spread in all three & have hit the over two out three games. The current spread for this one has the Blazers favored by 3.5 points and the total sits at 242. Now let’s get to breaking down some numbers between these two.
Looking at the last 5 games Portland has been playing a lot slower of a pace ranking 28th in pace just ahead of Phoenix & Detroit. While they may be playing at a slow pace, they’re making the most of their chances down the floor ranking 8th in EFG% (57.9) & 3rd in OFF RTG (126.6). The Wizards on the other hand over that same span are ranked 1st in pace, 23rd in EFG% (51.6) & 24th in OFF RTG (108.3). Judging by these numbers it looks like we have one team who has strung together 6 straight wins by beating teams in the half court while the other is getting up & down the floor at the highest pace but are putting up a lot of shots resulting in misses. Let’s dive into some defensive numbers to help us find an edge in this one.
Defensively both of these teams are actually really similar over the last 5 games. Washington holds a higher DEF RTG (11th) while Portland ranks 23rd but when look into the FG% they are holding opponents to the Wizards rank 13th (46.6) while the Blazers rank 15th (46.7). Three Pt % is also almost identical between these two Portland 10th (34.0) Washington 13th (35.5). Looking at all the offensive and defensive numbers we’ve went through I’d say that Portland holds a slight advantage on the offensive end while both teams are almost identical on the defensive end. Before we decide on a side or total here, we need to find a bigger edge in this game.
After digging through some more stats between these two teams I noticed a few that caught my eye. The Wizards rank 29th in opponent rebounds per game (48.8), the Blazers are shooting the 5th most three’s in the league per game (40.2) and are hitting at the 4th highest % (42.8). With the way the Wizards are playing at such a high pace and giving up tons of rebounds to their opponents I think the only way to look in this game is taking the Blazers -3.5. This line seems to be short due to Washington finally stringing together a few wins I would personally have this game lined closer to -6. If this wizards team gets the pace up to where they like playing and don’t increase their shooting % here this Blazer team will shoot their lights out. Lillard and Trent have been doing a lot of damage from three and I don’t expect that to let up tonight with the Wizards giving up 29 ppg to PG’s & 21 ppg to SG’s over the last 2 weeks. Let’s prepare for another Westbrook vs Lillard matchup where Lillard absolutely torches Westbrook for 35+ points and ends their 3-game winning streak with a dominating win before heading to Phoenix to play the Suns on Monday. Alright boys that’s my breakdown on tonight’s game between the Blazers and Wizards now we just wait for tipoff and hope our guys run pure!
Tyler’s Pick (released last night on bets sheet): Blazers -3 -113
