San Antonio
Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers Betting Preview
We are
starting to close down the NBA regular season. The best advice professional handicappers
can give you is to find games where both teams still have something to play
for.
We get that
on Saturday night when the San Antonio Spurs visit the Portland Trail Blazers.
Portland is fighting for the sixth seed and avoiding the play-in tournament.
San Antonio is trying to remain in the play-in tournament field and not drop
out to a team like the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Western
Conference battle tips off Saturday night at 10 PM EST.
HOW TO
BECOME A BOOKIE
San Antonio
Spurs: Defensive Focus
The Spurs
have been losing more than they’ve been winning of late, a trend they’ll need
to reverse quickly.
San
Antonio’s identity is a bottom-ten offense supported by a top-ten defense.
Without a star to take over games, it will be tough for the Spurs to make noise
in the postseason or on Saturday night.
The Spurs
prefer to do their scoring near the paint, as their offense makes the
second-least threes per game.
DeMar
DeRozan leads San Antonio with 21.7 points per game, adding in 7.3 assists.
Jakob Poetl hauls in nearly eight rebounds per game and blocks just about two
shots per game.
We picked
the Celtics to cover the spread versus the Warriors. Go check out our Warriors
at Celtics betting preview.
Portland
Trail Blazers: Advantage from Three
Portland
moves through Damian Lillard. A top-ten offense that is second in the NBA in
threes made, the offense goes as Lillard does.
Lillard is
averaging nearly 29 points per game on 44% shooting, chipping in 7.6 assists
each game.
The star
guard played in just one of the games against the Spurs, going for 35. Expect a
repeat occurrence on Saturday, as the Spurs defense ranks as a bottom-ten team
defending the three.
CJ McCollum
chips in 23.1 points per game, and Carmelo Anthony is shooting over 40% from
deep. At this time, the Blazers are set to be a part of the NBA
Play-In Tournament, something they’d rather avoid.
There’s a
large gap between the Blazers’ offense and defense - ranked as one of the five
worst defenses in the NBA.
The
Blazers’ combination of strong scoring and weak defense makes for a lot of
high-scoring games.
Total pick:
Take the Over
Pace,
calculated by shots per game and possessions per game, has both the Spurs and
Blazers as fast teams. Both teams rank inside the top 12 of pace - expect
plenty of shots on Saturday night.
Take the
over. Beyond pace, the Blazers’ offense is well-positioned to take advantage of
the Spurs’ poor three-point defense.
Portland’s
defensive weakness is allowing teams to score in the paint, which aligns with
the Spurs’ offensive preference.
When both
offenses have advantages, we can expect both teams to capitalize. Portland is
one of the best teams in the NBA against over/unders.
Game pick:
Portland to Cover
The
Portland offense is so much stronger than San Antonio’s, and it is enough to
take the Blazers in this one. The Spurs have been a 1.5-point favorite heading
into both meetings this year versus the Blazers, when looking at past NBA odds.
These teams
have met twice this season, splitting the series thus far. San Antonio won the
first matchup, 125-104, while Portland won the second game, 107-106.
The Trail
Blazers did not have the pair of Lillard and McCollum for either of these
games. They have them now.
Take
Portland to win and cover the spread.
