The Portland Trail Blazers will be short-handed when they host the Indiana Pacers tonight as guard CJ McCollum is out with a knee injury. Other Blazers will need to pick up the slack as Portland has been one of the hottest bets coming out of the all-star break at 8-4 SU and ATS. The Blazers also have a great winning history when hosting the Pacers as they’ve won nine straight vs Indiana when playing at the Moda Center dating back to 2007.
The Blazers opened as 4-point favorites with a total of 213.5.
STANDOUT STATS
- The Pacers are 0-9 SU and 2-6-1 ATS in their last nine games in Portland.
- The Pacers are one of the best defenses in the NBA. They only allow 103.9 points per game (rated first) and that average only goes up to 107.8 in road games.
- The Pacers on the road allow opposing teams to shoot 46.9 percent from the field (rated 19th) compared to 43.1 percent at home, which is rated first. Opponents also shoot 37.7 percent from behind the arc (rated 27th) in Pacers road games compared to 33.5 percent at home (rated third).
- Portland has been hot since the all-star break at 8-4 SU and ATS with one loss at home to the Thunder. In that span, the Trail Blazers have the third-best point differential (+6.1) and rank fourth in points per game (117.3) but are only averaging 33 percent from behind the arc.
- The Blazers are 10-2 SU and 8-4 ATS in 12 home games vs Eastern Conference teams this season. They also beat this Pacers team by 10 when they played in Indiana back in October.
- The total has gone UNDER in the Pacers’ last six games (avg. combined score: 204.67). The total has also gone UNDER in the last three games in this matchup (avg. combined score: 197.33).
- Blazers guard CJ McCollum will not play in this matchup due to a strained right knee. In the lone game he missed this season, the Blazers throttled the Suns by 22 points at home in December.
My Best Bet for Pacers vs Blazers
Blazers -4
I’ll probably get burned on this one because CJ McCollum is a huge part of the Blazers’ offense but I think the Pacers have played so poorly on the road lately that I’m willing to overlook it. The Pacers’ defense hasn’t performed nearly as well as it does at home and the offense has looked to be in quicksand as it hasn’t topped 110 points in six straight games, which all have conveniently gone UNDER. The total is just too low for me to confidently take the UNDER so give me the Blazers to hold it down at home.
