No Kevin Durant, no problem for the Golden State Warriors in the first game of their Western Conference Finals series with the Portland Trail Blazers. Steph Curry had a monster performance in the opener and the Warriors are hoping to take a 2-0 lead in the series on Thursday.
The Blazers are on the road and will once again be the underdogs, but they didn’t play very well in Game 1 and still hung around into the fourth quarter. Portland is hoping for a better performance and it would really behoove the team to do so to try to steal a contest in Oakland before Durant gets back in NBA gambling.
This NBA basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers will be held at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 16th, 2019. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
We'll have NBA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for every game of the 2019 NBA season.
Odds Analysis
The Warriors are listed as the 8-point favorites to win Game 2. Golden State comes in at -340 on the moneyline while the Blazers are the +274 underdogs. The scoring total is listed at 218 points.
The Warriors covered the spread in Game 1 while the “under” was the easy winner as the game was lower-scoring than anticipated. It will be interesting to see if the pace picks up in this one in NBA gambling.
Last Time Out
The Warriors were ahead for much of the contest and pulled away in the fourth for an easy 116-94 win. Curry was fantastic, finishing with 36 points on 12-of-23 shooting, including 9-of-15 from three-point range. He added seven assists and six rebounds. Klay Thompson was also great, finishing with 26 points, three steals and a pair of blocks.
Golden State shot 50 percent from the field and 51.5 percent from three-point range. The Blazers shot just 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from downtown. Damian Lillard could never get going and finished with 19 points on 4-of-12 from the field. The Blazers seemed to have a hangover from a thrilling seven-game series against the Nuggets in the second round. Portland turned the ball over 21 times.
Injury Report
Durant is out with a calf strain and it seems unlikely he plays in Game 2. He is scheduled to be re-examined on Thursday morning and unless there is fantastic news he will sit again. Obviously Durant is a huge piece of the puzzle but the Warriors have been just fine without him. They beat the Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals after he went down, and then went on the road and clinched the series in Game 6.
They were consistently ahead against the Blazers in Game 1 and will once again rely on Curry and Thompson to lead the way without Durant.
Blazers forward Rodney Hood injured his knee in the final game of the team’s second-round series against the Nuggets but was able to participate in Game 1. He finished with 17 points and should be good to go in Game 2.
Free NBA ATS Picks
The Warriors are feeling good and looked great in the first game, but things can change quickly in the playoffs. Lillard is going to play much better in this one, and there is a chance Golden State comes out overconfident after so much success without Durant.
The odds are right to pick the upset in this one. The Blazers are going to shock Golden State with a road victory in Game 2 to even this series at one game apiece in NBA betting lines.
NBA ATS Pick: Portland Trail Blazers 110, Golden State Warriors 108
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