Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers will host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. This will be the third game in L.A.'s Western road trip, as they are coming off wins in Denver and Utah on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those wins give L.A. an NBA-best record of 18-3 coming into Friday. After a rough start to the season, Portland has turned things around as of late, winning four of its past five games. Each team's injury report is relatively clean, with just Anthony Davis (shoulder) and Kyle Kuzma (ankle) listed as probable, while Avery Bradley (leg) remains out. Tip-off for this one is set for 10:30 p.m ET from the Moda Center. Sportsbooks list Los Angeles as a 4.5-point favorite, while the over-under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 224 in the latest Lakers vs. Blazers odds. Before you make any Lakers vs. Blazers picks or NBA predictions, you'll want to see what SportsLine's advanced computer model has to say.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times, and last season it returned a whopping $4,280 on its top-rated NBA spread and money line picks. It's already returned over $1,400 in profit on all its top-rated NBA picks during the 2019-20 season and enters Week 7 on a blistering 15-3 run on all top-rated NBA against the spread picks. Anybody who has followed it has seen huge returns and consistently beaten NBA odds.
Now, the model has locked in on Lakers vs. Blazers on Friday. We can tell you it is leaning over and it also says one side of the spread has all the value. You can head to SportsLine to see the pick. Now, here are several NBA betting lines and trends for Trail Blazers vs. Lakers
- Lakers vs. Blazers spread: Lakers -4.5
- Lakers vs. Blazers over-under: 224 points
- Lakers vs. Blazers money line: Los Angeles -160, Portland +140
- LAL: The Lakers rank first in the entire NBA in defensive efficiency.
- POR: The Blazers have won four of six games that they've had both Lillard and Conference Player of the Week Carmelo Anthony on the court.
The model is well aware that the Lakers are the far better team on paper, and they are in the midst of a statement road trip in which they have covered the spread by an average of 15 points against other possible Western Conference title contenders. They have the NBA's best defensive efficiency and record, and only the Bucks have a better point differential. An 8-13 Portland team with a negative point differential should struggle to stop that roll.
Just because the Los Angeles has some edges, doesn't mean it will cover the Lakers vs. Blazers spread on Friday.
The model is well aware that while Portland is short on options to slow down James and Davis, the same could be said for the Lakers' ability to slow down Lillard and CJ McCollum. McCollum is coming off of a 33-point performance, and he has reached the 20-point mark in 10-straight games entering Friday's action.
Without Bradley, L.A.'s best perimeter defender is Danny Green, who has seen his minutes dwindling lately. Rajon Rondo's defense has fallen off in a big way over the past few seasons, and he has no chance of slowing down Lillard. Lillard has averaged over 30 points per game when facing L.A. on his home court over the past two seasons, and another big showing could be coming from Lillard and the surging Trail Blazers.
So who wins Blazers vs. Lakers? And which side of the spread has all the value? Visit SportsLine now to find out which side of the Blazers vs. Lakers spread you need to jump on, all from the model that has crushed its NBA picks, and find out.
