The Portland Trail Blazers have surprised everybody this season, and they\u2019ve done so in dramatic fashion. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Los Angeles (20-10) @ Portland (23-5)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n They\u2019re the No. 1 team in the NBA (tied with the Indiana Pacers) following Christmas, and they\u2019ve beaten every top-nine team in the league that they\u2019ve faced.<\/p>\n As it turns out, the Los Angeles Clippers are not one of those teams, but the two will battle on Dec. 26 at the Moda Center in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Clippers are coming off of a tough loss to the Golden State Warriors, and they\u2019re underdogs in this one, as they\u2019re the No. 4 team out West going up against No. 1.<\/p>\n Entering this game, the Clips are fifth in scoring (105 points per game), and 11th in points allowed (99.3 points per game).<\/p>\n There are two key matchups to watch for: Chris Paul versus Damian Lillard, and Blake Griffin versus LaMarcus Aldridge.<\/p>\n When looking at the latter, you have two big men with contrasting styles. Griffin is going to attack the rim every chance he gets, while Aldridge will spread the floor with his mid-range jumper.<\/p>\n Expect the two styles to look different, but picture a physical battle down low, as Aldridge will attack when looking to draw fouls.<\/p>\n At the point guard position, you have arguably the game\u2019s best floor general taking on one of the league\u2019s up-and-coming stars.<\/p>\n Paul will have a field day against a youngster who is still improving on defense, as he\u2019ll be able to slice his way through pick-and-roll defense en route to a layup or a lob to Griffin. Expect three-point shooting in this game from Portland. The Trail Blazers take the fourth-most three-pointers in the NBA, and they\u2019re No. 1 in three-point percentage.<\/p>\n No team in the Association makes as many long-range shots as they do (10.1), and they\u2019re the No. 1 scoring team because of it.<\/p>\n Conversely, the Blazers are allowing three-point shooting on defense by design.<\/p>\n They recognize that they aren\u2019t good at defending the paint, so instead of brining double teams and leaving the perimeter open, they\u2019re focusing on stopping shots from downtown.<\/p>\n The Clippers are shooting a horrible percentage from long range this season (33.3 percent), which is even more of a reason they\u2019re not likely to shoot well on Thursday.<\/p>\n This game is on national television\u2014just the second time this season the Blazers can make that claim. Local fans have bought into the hype, but across the league, there are still doubters who don\u2019t see a national title contender.<\/p>\n Expect this one to be close, but don\u2019t be shocked if Portland comes away with another dramatic win.<\/p>\n Prediction: Los Angeles -4<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Los Angeles vs Portland NBA Picks The Portland Trail Blazers have surprised everybody this season, and they\u2019ve done so in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":67894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4219,43066,22695,22536,43070,45294,8911,30501,50143],"class_list":["post-70967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-clippers","tag-clippers-vs-trail-blazers","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-clippers","tag-l-a-clippers-vs-portland-trail-blazers","tag-l-a-vs-portland","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70970,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70967\/revisions\/70970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThursday, Dec. 26 10:30 PM ET<\/strong>
\nSpread: Portland -4<\/strong>
\nTotal: 212.5<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nCheck out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Los Angeles<\/h3>\n
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\nOn defense, Lillard will force him to step out on the perimeter, as the second-year player has shown he can score from virtually anywhere on the court.<\/p>\nPortland<\/h3>\n