On Thursday night, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Portland Trail Blazers will meet up in the Crescent City. Both Western Conference teams have done fairly well, making this one of the must-see contests on the NBA schedule.
This one will be played at the Smoothie King Center. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. In this article, we’re gonna break down the game before making our Trail Blazers vs Pelicans best bets.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Portland Trail Blazers
The visiting Trail Blazers enter this one having won two in a row and three of their past four. Half of that stretch came against Phoenix, who Portland split a two-game road series with last Friday and Saturday.
The Trail Blazers also beat the Suns once before during this campaign, in their second contest of the year. That 113-111 overtime triumph was part of a four-game winning streak to kick things off in 2022.
New Orleans (6-5) has tried to string some wins together but hasn’t been able to since beating Brooklyn and Charlotte in the first two games of their campaign.
The Pelicans have played in three overtime games so far —- losing to Utah, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Atlanta.
If those games — all of which were decided by three points or less — swung the other way, we’d be talking about New Orleans a little differently right now.
Last Games
Trail Blazers Last Game Records
The Trail Blazers toppled reeling Charlotte, 105-95, on the road. Damian Lillard went 8-of-16 from the field and finished with a game-high 26 points. Anfernee Simons — who’s averaging the fifth-most points per game in the league — chipped in with 19, which was also more than any Hornet put up.
Pelicans Last Game Records
The Pelicans downed Chicago, 115-111, in the Windy City Wednesday night to cap a stretch where they played six of their last seven on the road. Prior to dispatching the Bulls, New Orleans was on its first losing streak of the new season.
Forward Brandon Ingram scored 22, while center Jonas Valanciunas went for 21 and Zion Williamson 19.
All but four points of Ingram’s output came in the second half, including seven straight in the fourth quarter.
The Pelicans shot a mere 3-for-19 from three-point range — including an 0-for-5 showing from CJ McCollum — but DeMar DeRozan’s turnover with 17.4 seconds to go bailed them out.
New Orleans was down by as much as 11 in the first half, and the bench poured in 25 points during the initial two quarters.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Portland Trail Blazers Analysis
Any reason to make Trail Blazers picks later on in this writing would be because of their adept frontcourt. Lillard’s 26.8 points per game are the sixth-most in the NBA to this point, and Simons is adding 22.0 points a contest.
Those are probably the most important NBA player stats going into this matchup and in making our Pelicans vs Trail Blazers prediction.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Portland Trail Blazers Odds Breakdown
Let’s check out the lines for this game before we make our Trail Blazers vs Pelicans best bets.
New Orleans Pelicans
The lines on this game just go to show how exciting it can be as compared to some other NBA matchups. The odds have the Pelicans at -110 to cover -6.5 and -275 favorites on the moneyline.
Portland Trail Blazers
As the visitor, Portland is -110 to cover the spread. The Trail Blazers are a +225 underdog.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Portland Trail Blazers Pick and Prediction
The fact that Portland has the scoring duo of Lillard and Simons should give them a real chance in this one. With our Trail Blazers vs Pelicans best bets, watch for this to be a closely-contested, high-scoring tilt.
Ultimately, having seen the NBA team stats from recently, we’re going to go with Portland to cover the spread on the road and the over of 225 points to hit.
NBA Pick: Trail Blazers +6.5 (-110)
NBA Pick: Over 225 points (-108)
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