Portland are currently on a bad run of 3 consecutive defeats. They were beaten by Denver (132:120), Golden State (135:90) and Sacramento (126:121). All of those games were on the road. Looking at the matchup against Kings, Portland went into 4th quarter with a decent lead of 6 points (93:99), but severely underperformed in the last quarter (33-22), which resulted in a defeat. Well actually we can say Cousins singlehandedly defeated Portland with season high 55 points. Best 2 scorers for Portland were McCollum (36pts) and Plumlee who ended the game with 27pts. All in all, Portland shot 55.5% from the field, committed 10 turnovers and stole the ball 3 times, their opponents, Sacramento shot 51.2% from the field, committed 9 turnovers and stole the ball 4 times. Now Portland has a chance to break their losing streak with a win at Moda Center in front of their own fans. Trail Blazers have already proven to be quite decent when playing at home. Currently they are holding a 3 game winning streak at home with a overall record of 8-4. In their last 3 home games, Portland won against Indiana (121:109), Miami (99:92) and Oklahoma (114:95).
Dallas Mavericks are still sitting at the bottom position in Western Conference with a record of 7-21. Can they improve by the end of the season? Hard to say, but looking at their performance at the moment the future does not look so bright. Mavericks won 2 out of their last 5 games against Nuggets (112:92) and Kings (99:79), whereas they lost to Pistons (85:95), Jazz (103:100) and Nuggets (117:107). In their recent defeat against Nuggets on Tuesday, Mavericks lead by the end of 1st quarter (28:31), but it all soon turned around with strong performance from the home side. Nuggets accumulated a lead of 2 points by the end of 2nd quarter and held the lead till the end of the game. The best scorers of the match were Jokic (27pts), Harris (24pts) and Williams (23pts). Maverick shot 53.1% from the field, committed 12 turnovers and stole the ball 4 times. Nuggets on the other hand shot 57% from the field, committed 11 turnovers and stole the ball 7 times. Mavericks have not been really shining in away fixtures, with 10 consecutive defeats. In fact, they have won only 1 away fixture out of 14 played. How will they fare in today’s away fixture is yet to be seen, but in my opinion any huge improvement is out of the question.
Verdict & Prediction
As stated before, Mavericks perform extremely bad when playing on the road, on the other side, Portland are quite decent when playing in front of their fans. This statistic alone gives an edge to Portland Trail Blazers. Form wise, neither team has really been on the top of their game, but we must take into consideration that Portland has played 8 out of their last 9 matches on the road, which does effect the team and contributes to fatigue. Tonight my money is on Portland to add 4th consecutive win at Moda Center.
Prediction: Portland Trail Blazers -5.5 points
Odds: 2.02 Pinnacle and SBOBET
Also, you can check out another prediction for today : Metz vs Giungamp
