NBA betting action sees the Los Angeles Lakers<\/strong> taking on the\u00a0Portland Trail Blazers<\/strong>\u00a0taking on the\u00a0on Monday, Jan. 5\u00a0at\u00a0Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla. Cappers Picks provides free NBA handicapping tips all season long.<\/p>\n Los Angeles<\/a> (10-23) vs. Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> (26-8)<\/strong> Click here to view…\u00a0NBA ATS Stats<\/a>\u00a0&\u00a0Expert NBA Betting Insight!<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Los Angeles Lakers are no longer from Tinseltown; they’re from Struggletown.<\/p>\n At the time of publication, this team is down 28-15 in the first quarter against the struggling Indiana Pacers. At the same time, the team has a 10-23 record and is the second-worst team in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n [dfads params=’groups=63742&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n Although this team is clearly struggling, there’s been evidence that fewer minutes for Kobe Bryant are actually helping this team stay competitive. Then again, Bryant is the one who recorded 23, 11 and 11 in an 111-103 win against the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 30.<\/p>\n [dfads params=’groups=66501&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n Against Portland, the objective will be to force turnovers. We recently saw the Trail Blazers lose just their second game all year against an Eastern Conference opponent, and the reason was a plethora of turnovers against the team with the best record out East.<\/p>\n Against the Atlanta Hawks, the Blazers turned the ball over 18 times. Fortunately, they’re set to go up against a Lakers squad that is just 17th in terms of forcing turnovers.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Blazers, they’re without Joel Freeland for the next two weeks — the most consistent big man to step up in Robin Lopez’s absence.<\/p>\n Assuming Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge are healthy, one of the major storylines will focus on Meyers Leonard and Thomas Robinson. More specifically, this one will focus on who steps up in the absence of the two big men.<\/p>\n As long as the Blazers avoid mistakes, this game should be theirs for the taking.<\/p>\n [dfads params=’groups=63741&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n The point spread hasn’t been set at the time of this publication, but a double-digit win should be in order.<\/p>\n * LAL are 4-14 ATS in their last 18 Mon. games. Expect a big win for the Blazers. The Lakers don’t have the defense to challenge Portland’s offense, or the offensive attack to threaten the Blazers’ defense.<\/p>\n Expect a lopsided victory for Portland against one of the NBA’s worst teams throughout the early part of the 2014-15 season.<\/p>\n Play Portland ATS<\/p>\n [dfads params=’groups=63706&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NBA Betting? Lakers vs Blazers Predictions NBA betting action sees the Los Angeles Lakers taking on the\u00a0Portland Trail Blazers\u00a0taking on the\u00a0on Monday, Jan. 5\u00a0at\u00a0Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla. Cappers Picks provides free NBA handicapping tips all season long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":986,"featured_media":91892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[61013,11405,3121,65028,21148,749,2381,30501],"class_list":["post-91891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-61013","tag-lakers-vs-blazers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-los-angeles-lakers-vs-portland-trail-blazers","tag-nba-basketball-predictions","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91891","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\/986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91903,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91891\/revisions\/91903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
2015 NBA Picks<\/h3>\n
\n Monday,\u00a0Jan. 5<\/strong>
\n 10:00 p.m. ET<\/strong>
\n Moda Center<\/strong>
\n TV: Local<\/strong>
\n NBA Betting Lines:\u00a0 Portland -12<\/strong>
\n NBA Betting Total: 211<\/strong>
\n***2015 NBA BONUSES***<\/a><\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nLos Angeles Lakers<\/h3>\n
Portland Trail Blazers<\/h3>\n
NBA Handicapping Trends:<\/h3>\n
\n* Over is 21-9 in LAL last 30 vs. NBA Northwest.
\n* Under is 7-3 in LAL last 10 road games.
\n* Under is 13-6 in POR last 19 home games.
\n* Over is 8-2 in the last 10 meetings.
\n* Over is 9-3 in the last 12 meetings in Portland.<\/p>\n4* NBA\u00a0Prediction: Portland 113 – Lakers 98<\/h3>\n
Check out our\u00a0Updated NBA Betting Odds<\/a>.<\/h3>\n