basketball | Sreda, Decembar 14, 2022 12:38 PM

San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Best Bet: Back Portland to Cover

Sam Cox

San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Best Bet: Wednesday, December 14th

The 15-12 Portland Trail Blazers are 5.5-point favourites over the 9-18 San Antonio Spurs for their meeting in Texas on Wednesday night. Portland was a comfortable winner when these teams clashed earlier this season. San Antonio has put together a surprise three-game winning streak after losing 11 games on the bounce.

Thus far, Portland has the best record against the spread, having covered in 66.7% of games overall. San Antonio is 7-8 ATS at home, and 6-7 as an underdog at home.

The hosts are missing Jakob Poeltl. Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson, Zach Collins and Keita Bates-Diop are all listed as questionable. Nassir Little and Gary Payton II remain sidelined for the Blazers, while Josh Hart and Drew Eubanks are both down as day-to-day.

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San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Preview
San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Best Bet

San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Preview

Thu, Dec 15. 01:10 (UK time)

Even after their recent surge, the Spurs are dead-last in net rating, with the worst defence in the league and the second-worst offence. This is a franchise focused on Victor Wembanyama rather than trying to be particularly respectable in 2022-23.

In contrast, Portland have won four of five following an explosive offensive performance against the Timberwolves just a couple of days ago. Damian Lillard is playing at a very high level, and he is complemented by a strong supporting cast. In an admittedly small sample of four games since Lillard returned from injury, the Blazers are third in net rating.

Portland’s offence, as has been the case throughout the Lillard era, is hard to slow down. They are sixth in shots at the rim and naturally take plenty of threes with Lillard’s long-range game almost matched by Anfernee Simons. The Spurs do a decent job at running shooters off the three-point line, but they are 30th in the Association in shot volume at the rim. They are also bottom 10 on the defensive glass.

Two areas of weakness for the Blazers are protecting their own rim and turning the ball over. San Antonio doesn’t get to the cup often, and only ranks around league average in forcing opponent giveaways.

San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Best Bet

The Spurs’ wins of late have decreased the spread a little here. Portland with Lillard look poised to be a top-six team in the Western Conference. They are 7-2 against teams below .500 and have no discrepancy between their home and road records.

Having covered in 10 of their 14 games following a win, look for the Blazers to cover this spread and possibly do so comfortably. While far from a perfect team, they have much more talent than the Spurs, who will struggle to keep the Blazers’ offence under control.