Washington at Portland
Time: 9 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: POR -4
Total: 223
Betting odds c/o 5dimes
The red hot Washington Wizards have surged to take command of the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference. Washington has won four-straight games going into Saturday night’s matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland, too, is making its late season surge as winners of its past four. The Trail Blazers are 4-point favorites in the game, and Portland has gone 17-13 at home this season.
The Trail Blazers were basically counted out after trading Mason Plumlee for Jusuf Nurkic at the trade deadline, but that line of thought has turned out to be pretty erroneous to say the very least. Nurkic had an absolutely dominant performance in the Blazers 114-108 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He had 28 points, 20 rebounds (seven offensive), eight assists, six blocks and two steals in 38 minutes.
All questions of Nurkic not being able to round into playing shape have been quickly silenced, too. For all the hype that was made of Plumlee’s high post passing skills, Nurkic may be better still. He has seamlessly stepped into Plumlee’s role as the tertiary playmaker behind guards Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. The Blazers are still a tough playoff team, but they must first get there.
If Portland should crack the 8-seed, they could pose a threat to the Warriors. The Blazers have one of the league’s best backcourts, with Lillard and McCollum combining to average 49.2 points per game and both posting PERs over 20.0. Given Portland has a bevy of talented role players, there is a formula intact for success. Maurice Harklkess, Allen Crabbe, Al-Farouq Aminu and Evan Turner help comprise a unit that is capable of hanging with the best reserves in the league.
If Portland has any problems, it is a lack of frontcourt depth, an issue that was exacerbated by losing free agent acquistion Festus Ezeli for the season due to knee surgeries. Meyers Leonard has his moments of looking like a very capable backup, but he is prone to defensive lapses and can “disappear” for large tracts of game time. Portland will need to do some minor tinkering over the offseason, but the team is a lot closer to contention than most guessed it would be two years after losing star forward LaMarcus Aldridge to the San Antonio Spurs in free agency.
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Portland basically at that point jettisoned their plan, getting rid of three more starters and bringing in the youth that has resulted in Harkless and Crabbe becoming featured talents. Evan Turner was something of a swing and a miss, but he is a good ball handler who can initiate second unit scoring, even if his efficiency leaves plenty to be desired.
Portland is too good of a team to simply write off, though winning more than a game in a first round matchup against Golden State may be asking quite a lot of this young club.
Washington has been succeeding a lot on the basis of the emergence of Bradley Beal. The former Florida Gator has excelled throughout Washington’s post-All-Star break surge. Beal now leads the team in scoring at 23.2 points per game, and over his past 10 he has been better still: 27.6 points, 3.3 assists and 4.1 rebound per game while shooting 53.7 percent from the floor. Beal had 38 points and 10 rebounds on 13 of 24 shooting in Friday night’s 130-122 win over the Sacramento Kings.
Beal has shot 52.9 percent from three over Washington’s last five games, and he has averaged 29.4 points per game over that stretch. With Beal looking like a legitimate superstar, this could be a real showdown in the backcourt. John Wall is consistently brilliant and Beal cannot seem to miss, which is the perfect showdown given Portland’s volatile backcourt.
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