Portland has plenty of gas left in the tank
The Portland Trail Blazers have misplaced 20 of their final 22 video games. They’ve dropped 10 in a row, overlaying simply as soon as. If tanking was an artwork kind, they’d be Pablo Picasso. Their newest one-sided piece was a 50-point thrashing by the hands of the Mavs as 19.5-point underdogs. Right now, they’re going to be 19.5-point dogs on BetMGM once more as they finish the season at dwelling versus the Utah Jazz.
R.I.P. Metropolis
Portland’s opening night time beginning lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic is a distant reminiscence. Lillard’s season ended 35 video games in, McCollum was shipped off to New Orleans, and Nurkic’s sole motion on the court docket lately was when he chucked a fan’s cell phone. Ticketholders at the moment are being handled/subjected to starters like Brandon Williams, CJ Elleby, Drew Eubanks, and different names I’ll or will not be making up. The one method the 27-54 Blazers may telegraph their tanking any more durable is that if they winked on the digicam each time they inbounded the ball.
Vegas has tried their finest to inflate spreads sufficient to mirror the present state of basketball in Portland, however like Chauncey Billups’ group, they have been developing quick. The Blazers have didn’t cowl 4 of their final 5 spreads as double-digit underdogs. Portland owns the worst mixed Player Impact Estimate within the NBA they usually have not been afraid to flaunt it of their quest to spice up their possibilities of getting the primary choose within the 2022 draft.
Since 2003, 13 NBA video games have tipped off with an expansion of 19.5 factors or better. Portland’s matchups two days in the past and at present account for 15.4% of that.
A Utah win would lock up the Western Convention’s fifth seed for the Jazz. They’re 3-0 versus the Blazers this season, successful by 22, 15, and 38 factors.
Stats offered by Basketball Reference, teamrankings.com and nba.com.
