The New Orleans Pelicans take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.
Anthony Davis is having another MVP-type season for the Pelicans and in their last five games, he is putting up out of this world numbers. The Brow has averaged 36 points, 14 rebounds and four assists over his last five games. But Davis’ monster efforts have not been enough. The Pelicans have split their last four games, are 6-4 in their last 10 games and are 3.5 games off the 8th seed in the Western Conference.
Davis is averaging 29.4 points, 13.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.6 blocks per game this season. Jrue Holiday has provided Davis excellent support with 20.8 points and 8.2 assists per game. Julius Randle is also having a great first season in New Orleans as he is putting up 20.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
The Pelicans are the third highest scoring team in the league at 117.5 points per game. New Orleans is ranked 4th in the passing game at 27.1 assists per game and they are also 7th off the glass with 47.0 rebounds per game. However, the Pelicans only rank 26th in scoring defense at 114.8 points per game this season.
The Portland Trail Blazers are right where they want to be right now. Portland is at 27-19 and sitting at 4th place in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. Bulk of their success can be attributed to their strong play at their home floor because Portland is a solid 19-7 at the Moda Center this season. On Friday, the Blazers will defend their home floor again against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Blazers offense is anchored on their dynamic backout of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Lillard leads the Blazers with 26.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. McCollum is scoring 20.6 per game while also grabbing 3.7 rebounds and issuing 2.6 assists per game. Jusuf Nurkic has been key for the Blazers this season as he is averaging a double-double with 14.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.
Portland is scoring 112.2 points per game which is the 10th best scoring offense in the NBA right now. The Blazers are also 25th in assists with their 22.2 dimes per game average and are 3rd in rebounding at 48.0 rebounds per game. Portland is allowing 110.0 points per game which gives them the 15th best scoring defense in the league.
The Pelicans are 6-4 SU in their last 10 games played. New Orleans is 2-3 SU in their last five road games played. The Blazers are 7-3 SU in their last 10 games played. Portland is 6-1 ATS in their last seven home games. Head to head, the Pelicans are 7-3 SU in their last 10 meetings.
The Pelicans have dropped eight out of their last 10 road games. On the other hand, the Blazers have been one of the hottest teams in the league these days and they have won six out of their last seven at home and seven out of their last 10 games overall. Portland beat New Orleans 132-119 in their first meeting this season in a game that was also played at the Moda Center. I’m not expecting the result to change in this game. The Blazers have always been deadly at home and you know they haven’t forgotten about last season’s first round playoff debacle against the Pelicans. This is personal. We’re picking the Portland Trail Blazers to beat the New Orleans Pelicans on 1/18/19.
New Orleans is 5-4-1 ATS in their last 10 games played. The Pelicans are 2-2-1 ATS in their last five games on the road. Portland is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games played and 5-2 ATS in their last seven home games. Head to head, the Pelicans are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 meetings.
New Orleans is 2-5-1 ATS in their last eight road games and 9-14-1 ATS on the road this season. The Blazers are 35-16-1 ATS in their last 52 home games, 4-0 ATS in their last four games when playing on one day rest and 4-1 ATS in their last five games overall. The Pelicans have not played well on the road this season while the Blazers have been solid at the Moda Center. In what could be a close game, I’ll take the home team here. Prediction: Blazers -3
The over and under were 5-5 in the Pelicans last 10 games and the over is 3-2 in their last five road games. The total has gone under in six out of the last 10 games played by the Blazers and the under is 4-2-1 in Portland’s last seven home games played.
The under is 8-3-1 in the last dozen meetings between these two teams..But these teams are Top 10 in scoring this season and New Orleans has a bottom 5 defense. They combined for 251 points in their first meeting of the season and given the firepower both teams possess, this should go over. The Blazers have averaged 120 points per game in their last five games while the Pelicans have averaged an even higher 124.2 in their last five games as well. Prediction: Over 233.5
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