Thursday night NBA and we will see the Portland Trailblazers travel to Oracle Arena to take on the Golden State Warriors. Free Pick to follow. The game has a start time of 10:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Current Vegas betting odds have the Warriors listed as 9.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 209.
Analysis: The Portland Trailblazers come having wrapped up the Northwest Division a little while ago. Portland has been playing good ball of late as they have won 7 of their last 9 games and they currently hold the 4th seed in the West. Portland is 51-27 overall, but just 19-19 on the road. Portland has gone 8-2 ATS in their last 10 vs the Pacific Division, but just 4-14 ATS in the last 18 meetings in Golden State. The Trailblazers have been a decent offensive team this year, ranking 9th in scoring (103.0 ppg), 17th in shooting, 6th in 3 point shooting and 1st in FT shooting. Defensively the Trailblazers have been decent this year, ranking 10th in points allowed (97.9 ppg), 7th in defensive FG% and 4th in 3 point defense.
The Golden State Warriors come in with the best record in the NBA at 63-15 overall, but they come in off back-to-back road losses to San Antonio and New Orleans. It is just the 4th time all year that the Warriors have lost 2 in a row, but they have yet to lose 3 in a row this year. A win in tonight's will give the Warriors home court throughout the playoffs and finals should they get there. Golden State has gone 19-7 ATS in their last 26 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600, but just 6-15 ATS in their last 21 games playing on 1 days rest. The Warriors have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 1st in scoring (109.6 ppg), 1st in shooting, 1st in 3 point shooting and 9th in FT shooting. Defensively the Warriors have been solid, ranking 14th in points allowed (99.3 ppg), 1st in defensive FG% and 3rd in 3 point defense.
Pick: Going with the Under here. Both teams have played high scoring games of late, but for this game neither team has anything to play for and I just can't see them going all out offensively for this one. The Warriors have allowed just 97.5 ppg at home, while Portland has allowed just 100.7 ppg on the road. This should not be an up and down running game as both teams start to conserve playoff energy. The Under is 7-2 in Golden State's last 9 games on Thursday and 6-0 in Portland's last 6 Thursday night game. I can deal with both trends.
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