The Portland Trail Blazers are looking to keep their playoff streak alive. Portland has made it to the playoffs in four straight seasons and is right in the thick of things to make it five straight. Currently, they are a game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers and a half-game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference race. With the Clippers trading Blake Griffin and DeMarcus Cousins suffering a season-ending injury, they look to be in a great position. However, they need to win winnable road games against teams like the Sacramento Kings. They will try to do just that on Friday night.
This war on the floor will go down Friday, February 9, 2018, at 10:30 p.m. ET at the Golden1 Center in Sacramento, California. The game will be televised live on NBA TV. We'll have NBA odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NBA Friday schedule.
Opening NBA Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
Portland must be happy to play a Western Conference team again, because the Trail Blazers did not have a good run of things against Eastern Conference opponents over the past weeks. They were hammered on the road by both Toronto and Detroit and could not knock off a Boston team that was playing without Kyrie Irving.
Before that stretch, the Trail Blazers had rattled off some big wins. Portland had won seven of eight and covered the number in six of those games. The under has been a great bet in Portland games this season, cashing in 59.3 percent of its games.
The Kings have been one of the worst teams to bet this season. They have the worst point differential in the NBA, losing by an average of eight points a night, and have the fourth-worst ATS record in the league. Sacramento is just 22-28-3 ATS on the year.
Matchup to Watch
Like many teams in the NBA, the Trail Blazers are led by their backcourt. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have proven to be one of the best guard tandems in the NBA, and these two players have been the key for Portland over the last couple seasons.
With McCollum’s emergence, Lillard no longer has to try to carry the team at all times. He was guilty of trying to do too much over his first few seasons and that led to him trying to force too many shots. He is still very much a volume scorer, but is more efficient in that role and has been a good distributor too.
McCollum has been a deadly three-point shooter. Although he is often overlooked because he plays in the West, he is one of the top guards in the NBA. He has a PER of 18.1 and hitting over 42 percent of his threes yet again.
Sacramento’s guards have not been good on defense this season. That should lead to some big performances out of both Lillard and McCollum.
Key Stat
The Kings have the lowest-scoring offense in the league. While most other teams are playing up-tempo basketball, the Kings are slowing it down in order to try to win games. That hasn’t been working to date, but you can see why the Kings are doing it when you look at their perimeter shooting.
Buddy Hield and George Hill have proven to be solid shooters, but many of the other guards have struggled. In particular, De’Aaron Fox has had a hard time adjusting to the NBA and will need to develop his shot if he is going to be a decent contributor.
Free NBA Betting ATS Picks
Portland is going to be able to control the tempo because of its great guard play, and that will be the difference in this one. Look for the Trail Blazers to get the win and the cover.
NBA Betting Odds: Trail Blazers 107, Kings 100
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