Free Picks: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers head over to Moda Center to take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, yet another team currently without the services of their best player. The Clippers are coming into this matchup having won eight of their past nine contests, and that’s included several nights where they haven’t been playing at full force. Of course, you never can predict what L.A.’s lineup will look like come game time.

As has been the case over the past few years, Kawhi Leonard, L.A.’s best player, has been quite an enigma when it comes to his playing time. He predictably takes games off for load management, but sometimes it’s hard to tell when that will be. L.A. has actually gone 8-5 straight up when the Klaw sits, however, so his absence is not as significant as you might think.

That’s especially true against a Blazers team trying to make do without their best player, Damian Lillard, who continues to deal with a hamstring issue. The hammy has kept Dame out of three straight games now, and he won’t be alone in his street clothes on the sidelines. Portland big man Jusuf Nurkic, who was just out for several months with a wrist injury, will also be unavailable on Tuesday night.

Nurkic’s injury is considerably less worrisome than Lillard’s, however, with the Bosnian getting the night off for rest purposes rather than injury. Lillard, on the other hand, is looking at an uncertain return date, which puts his team’s playoff chances in serious question, much less the result in a game against a likely fully healthy Clippers squad.

Paul George is looking like he’s at 100 percent and playing better than ever, but even without him, the Clippers have gone 8-6 straight up, showing that the supporting cast knows how to coalesce to make up for the absence of their top players while still getting results.

The Clippers haven’t lost a game against the Blazers, whether against the spread or straight up, since March of 2019, a span of five games. L.A. is also 5-2 ATS in the last seven meetings in Oregon, which does not bode well for Portland here.

Los Angeles has been on a roll, going 7-1-1 ATS in their last nine, and Portland has been just the opposite, slipping at possibly the most inopportune time with a 3-6 ATS mark over their past nine contests. The Clippers have also covered the spread in five straight road games while Portland has covered the spread in just two of their past seven home contests.

We like the Clippers to cover here as one of our top picks, but there was just so much value that we actually bought up their line to a -4.5 NBA point spread at positively juicy +110 NBA odds. Finding plus odds with value in a matchup like this is rare, so when we sniped these numbers we just had to make it our best bet for today.

Another wager we like for this clash is an over bet on PG’s 24.5 points prop at -125 NBA odds. The guy has been in his bag in April, averaging 32.8 points per game over his past six outings, scoring 32+ in five of those six games. Considering the Blazers have one of the most laughable defensive units in the association, George has a good shot at continuing his scorching pace on Monday night.

• Los Angeles is 9-1-1 ATS in their last 11 when their opponent gave up 100+ last time out
• Portland has dropped their last 6 straight games ATS against teams with winning records
• Los Angeles is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 against teams with a record above .500
• Paul George is averaging 32.8 points per game over his past 6 outings