Tonight Portland Trail Blazers travel to Pepsi Center to play against Denver Nuggets. Trail Blazers are holding an overall record of 13-14 and they sit at 3rd position in Northwest Division, just above Nuggets who are 4th. In their matches, Portland average 109.8 points, whereas they let their opponents score111.4 ppg. This is 3rd worst record in the league and they clearly need to put some work in their defence. Prior to this match, Portland Trail Blazers managed to break their 4 game losing streak with a win over Oklahoma City Thunder (114:95). In that match, Portland got their lead in 2nd quarter, when they outscored their opponents (36-21). Going into 3rd quarter, the home side accumulated 16 point lead, to which they added another 5 points. Oklahoma had a hard task to close the margin of 21 points and they failed to do so. In the end Portland won by 19 points. Two of the players that stood out were Plumlee (18 points, 2 assists and 7 rebounds) and Lillard (17 points, 9 assists and 2 rebounds).
Nuggets are not showing anything promising at the moment. They have won only 2 out of their last 5 matches. With their latest defeat against Dallas Mavericks (112:92) they have ended their 6 road games run and are now hoping to please their home crowd with a win at Pepsi Center. Nuggets are averaging 105.6ppg, but on the other hand they let their opponent score 108.8ppg per match, which is a bit better that Portland, but still gives them an unenviable name as a 5th worst team when it comes to protecting the basket. Looking at their latest fixture, Nuggets failed to defeat Mavericks, who had a strong 1st quarter (27-19) and they did not stop till the end. We saw a terrible performance from Denver in 2nd quarter, when they were outscored by 14 points (38-24), which more or less sealed the deal for them. In that match Jokic was named the best scorer of the match with 27 points (to which he added 4 assists and 11 rebounds). This was his best performance this season and if he can repeat it, Denver is on a good way to win in front of their fans.
MISSING PLAYERS
– Portland Trail Blazers: /
– Denver Nuggets; Harris
Verdict & Prediction
Looking solely at these two team’s performance in recent matches there is no clear winner, but one thing is for sure, Pepsi Center is a hard ground to win on for visitors. Nuggets will want to break their bad performance and what better way to do so than winning at home. Denver will go into this match rested and motivated to show their fans what can they do and to revenge their defeat in first encounter with Portland at their home ground. Pick Denver for this one.
Prediction: Denver Nuggets -1
Odds: 1.82 SBOBET
