Monday night in the NBA I will have a free pick in the game between the Portland Trailblazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, which will take place at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on NBA TV. Current Vegas betting odds have the Thunder listed as 8 point favorites, while the total is set at 213.
Analysis: The Portland Trailblazers come in off a tough home loss to the Jazz, but that game doesn't mean a whole lot for this team as they are locked into the 4th seed in the West. The Blazers have now lost 3 of their last 4 games, while overall they have gone 51-29 overall, but they are just 19-20 on the road for the year. Portland has gone 4-9 ATS in their last 13 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600 and 4-9-1 ATS the last 14 in the series. The Trailblazers have been a decent offensive team this year, ranking 9th in scoring (103.0 ppg), 17th in shooting, 8th in 3 point shooting and 1st in FT shooting. Defensively the Trailblazers have been decent this year, ranking 9th in points allowed (98.3 ppg), 7th in defensive FG% and 7th in 3 point defense.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are struggling right now as they come in just 2-6 in their last 8 games, which includes a bad 12 point road loss to Indiana yesterday That loss now drops the Thunder to 43-36 on the year overall, and i keeps them outside of the playoffs, even though the Thunder and Pelicans have the same record. The Thunder are in real danger of missing the playoffs. OKC has gone 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games playing on 0 days rest, but just 2-8 ATS in their last 10 Monday games. The Thunder have been a good offensive team this year, ranking 6th in scoring (103.6 ppg), 19th in shooting, 23rd in 3 point shooting and 14th in FT shooting. Defensively the Thunder have been below average this year, ranking 24th in points allowed (101.8 ppg), 7th in defensive FG% and 10th in 3 point defense.
Pick: Going with the Over here. The Thunder are all about offense right now and could really care about defense as they have allowed 113.7 ppg in their last 6 games, while they have scored 107.4 ppg in their last 7 games. Portland is locked in to their spot in te playoffs and they haven't really played much defense of late as they have allowed 111 and 116 points in their last 2 games. That 111 they allowed as to a weak Utah offense at home. The Thunder should score plenty on them as well here. Portland is a solid offensive team that has averaged 108.8 ppg in their last 9 games, while putting up 106.3 ppg (Reg) in their 3 meetings with the Thunder this year. Both teams should score plenty here.
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