{"id":72967,"date":"2014-03-03T14:50:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T22:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=72967"},"modified":"2014-03-03T14:50:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T22:50:52","slug":"los-angeles-20-39-portland-41-18-free-pick-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/sports\/los-angeles-20-39-portland-41-18-free-pick-betting-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles (20-39) @ Portland (41-18) Free Pick &#038; Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers NBA Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Portland Trail Blazers have bounced back from their stretch of losses in February with six straight wins entering their matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. They are fighting for a top-three seed out West, while L.A. is simply hoping to stay afloat in a brutal Western Conference.<!--more--> [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Los Angeles (20-39) @ Portland (41-18)<br \/>\nMonday, March 3 10:00 PM ET @ Moda Center<br \/>\nSpread:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Los Angeles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At this point in the year, the Lakers are in unfamiliar territory. Not only are they out of the playoffs, but they\u2019re in a constant battle with the Sacramento Kings for last place out West. Both teams are 20-39 on the year, which means they\u2019re playing for the lottery\u2014and that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n<p>General Manager Mitch Kupchak has done a decent job of setting up the roster to be flexible. That means he\u2019ll have the chance to start fresh over the next two years, but more specifically, it means that expiring players on the roster are playing for the chance at offseason contracts, meaning they have too much pride to give into the tank job Kupchak has started.<\/p>\n<p>Against Portland, the No. 1 priority is slowing down the offense. The Blazers are the top-scoring team in the NBA, and it\u2019s largely because of their three-point shooting. Los Angeles has to be careful not to simply give up the mid-range game\u2014LaMarcus Aldridge\u2019s return will spark production in that area\u2014but focusing on the perimeter has to be the goal if the Lakers hope to stop Portland\u2019s winning streak.<br \/>\n[ad-6571516]<br \/>\n<strong>Portland<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The nice part about Portland\u2019s winning streak is that defense has become more of a priority. This is largely because the bench has been called upon to replace the injured Aldridge, Meyers Leonard and Joel Freeland. All reserve players are fighting for a spot in the playoff rotation, and the hope here is that the return of Aldridge and Leonard won\u2019t take away from what the team has accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for Portland, it is going up against a defense that has been even less productive on the year than it has. On the season, the Blazers are giving up 102.9 points per game\u2014the 25th-best mark in the league. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is allowing 106.5 per night, which is the second-worst mark in the entire Association.<\/p>\n<p>Offensively, the Blazers have more firepower than the Lakers, but you can\u2019t take away from the fact that L.A. is coming off of a 126-point performance against Sacramento\u2014a 126-122 win. The last time these two met, it took brilliant performances from role players such as Xavier Henry and Robert Sacre to keep things close (although the Blazers still won on the road). If Portland can contain the role players with its inspired new defense, it should walk away with its seventh-straight victory.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Portland 100 \u2013 Los Angeles 95<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers NBA Betting Odds The Portland Trail Blazers have bounced back from their stretch of losses in February with six straight wins entering their matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. They are fighting for a top-three seed out West, while L.A. is simply hoping to stay afloat in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":68388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72967","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=72967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72988,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72967\/revisions\/72988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}