The 25-29 Portland Trailblazers will travel to play the 26-29 LA Lakers in an NBA pro basketball game on Friday night. Tip off time from Staples Center in Los Angeles is scheduled for 10:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by the NBA League Pass Channel.
The odds from this NBA game has the home team LA Lakers favored by -8 ½ points with an over under line of 202 ½ points. There has been a ½ point move on over the total as the game opened up a few hours ago at 202 points.
This will be the third meeting of the season between these two clubs. Each team won and covered the spread on their home court.
The Trailblazers are 8-20 on the road this season. They enter play losers of six straight games. They come off the 102-98 home defeat on Tuesday to the Phoenix Suns as a -6 point home betting favorite. The total landed over 193 points. Portland fell behind 36-23 after one period in defeat at home. They shot just 41.2% from the floor along with 6 of 20 from three. The Trailblazers are crushed on the glass by a 51-37 margin. The team allowed the Suns 49.4% shooting. J.J. Hickson had 25 points and 16 rebounds on 10 of 14 shooting. Portland’s bench was atrocious hitting on 2 of 15 from the field. The Trailblazers troubles this season have been defending the basket. They allow teams 46.7% shooting ranking 27th and fourth worst in the NBA.
The LA Lakers are 17-11 on their home court. They bounce back from that terrible 24 point home loss to enter the All Star break against the Clippers with a 113-99 home win on Wednesday to the Boston Celtics as a -6 ½ point betting favorite. The total came in at over 193 ½ points. LA shot 50.6% from the floor along with 7 of 22 coming from three. They crushed the Celtics on the glass by a 49-34 margin. Dwight Howard led LA with 24 points and 13 rebounds on 10 of 13 shooting. The Lakers are in the top eight in the league in two key offensive categories which are points scored per game and field goal percentage. They average 101.8 points a game and make 45.8% of their shots. The playoff picture reveals the Lakers in the ninth seed ½ game ahead of Portland. LA is 3 ½ games behind the Houston Rockets for the eighth spot in the western conference.
