Los Angeles Lakers vs Portland Trail Blazers

Head to head, the Lakers are 7-19 ATS in the last 26 meetings and 4-18 ATS in the last 22 meetings in Portland while the home team is 5-2 ATS in the last 7 meetings. The Trail Blazers are 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record, 0-5 ATS in their last 5 home games and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 games overall. The Lakers on the other hand are 18-41-1 ATS in their last 60 games following a S.U. win, 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games playing on 0 days rest.
While the Los Angeles Lakers are rightly favored in this game, they have had their fair of struggles against the Portland Trail Blazers over the years, especially against the spread. The Lakers have lost their last three in Portland, two by double digits and are just 7-19 against the spread in the last 26 meetings and 4-18 ATS in the last 22 meetings in Portland. The home team has dominated this series of late, winning nine of 10 and the only road win in that stretch came in overtime as the Lakers left Portland with a 106-101 win back in early 2011.
Here’s the catch though. Los Angeles is coming off a game last night, however, they have everything to play for in this game as they are fighting for their playoff lives, currently leading the nine place Utah Jazz by game half a game. On the other hand, the Trail Blazers have clearly quit on their season, dropping eight in a row and seven of those eight were by double digits or greater. I still think they will be up for this game, they always are when hosting the Lakers.
It seems like I’m taking quite a few overs as the regular season comes to an end and I’m taking another one here. The Trail Blazers have been nothing special offensively lately, but LaMarcus Aldridge missed a chunk of games and they still have been right around the 98 point mark. Portland has been just terrible defensively over the last couple of weeks, allowing over 110 points in four of their last seven. Speaking of bad defensive teams, the Lakers are one of them and just have a look at the totals of their last five road games: 204, 201, 216, 237 and 212. I think this game goes over….