Tanking Blazers Continue Freefall
Our NBA betting preview examines the Utah Jazz’ return home as they look to reignite their season by feasting on the Portland Trail Blazers at Vivint Arena.
The home team continues to search for consistency in the final months of the regular season, but they’ve made light work of bottom-feeder teams so far this season and should feel confident of doing the same against a Portland team struggling to put together an NBA quality roster at the moment. The sportsbook agrees, spotting the Blazers a whopping 17 points.
Healthy Jazz Ready to Fire
For a multitude of different reasons, things haven’t really gotten going for the Utah Jazz this season in the manner that we’ve become accustomed to from them in recent times.
For the past two seasons, Quin Snyder’s side has remained a top-5 team in offensive and defensive efficiency, and yet, looking at the team’s recent performances since the All-Star break, they are struggling to assert themselves at either end of the floor.
Despite going 4-2 over their last six games they’ve continued to underperform their market value, going a horrible 1-5 ATS. What’s worse is their inability to cover big spreads remains an issue having gone 0-2 ATS when laying double-digit point spreads during that run.
Utah has the worst cover rate in the league when laying double-digits spreads this season, with the team going 6-18 ATS in those instances this season and losing seven of those games outright.
The biggest point for this team right now however is that they are finally playing with a clean bill of health.
Continuity in any lineup is key to teams stringing together strong performances and that should ring true for this Utah team who are certainly capable of performing to market expectations in this spot.
Blazers Staggering Toward Finish Line
If any team in the league can complain about not being healthy it’s this Portland Trail Blazers team.
While star guard Damian Lillard has remained a long-term absentee this season the team currently has eight players listed on the injury report, which includes the likes of Jusuf Nurkic, Eric Bledsoe, Nassir Little, Justise Winslow, and breakout star Anfernee Simons.
All of that has cultivated in this team being the worst team in the league at the moment in almost every measurable metric.
The team has gone 0-5 since returning from the All-Star break and have gone a dismal 0-5 ATS to match. During that run they’ve had an average losing margin of 31.2 points and are coming off a blowout 124-81 loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a near identical roster.
This team is showing no signs of turning things around and it’s difficult to envision a response from a side so severely lacking in NBA quality talent at the moment.
Trail Blazers vs Jazz Head-to-Head
The Utah Jazz have already recorded two comfortable wins against this Portland Trail Blazers team this season, with the average margin of victory being 18.5 points.
The Jazz were 129-107 winners here back in November, comfortably covering the -7 line on the night.
They also covered the -8 line in December when these teams met in Portland.
Trail Blazers vs Jazz Game Information
- Game: Portland Trail Blazers (25-39) at Utah Jazz (40-24)
- Location: Vivint Arena
- Day/Time: Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET
- Live Stream: NBA Game Pass
Trail Blazers vs Jazz Betting Lines
Trail Blazers vs Jazz Prediction
While things haven’t been particularly smooth sailing for the Utah Jazz this season the reality is they’re still way above this current version of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Now that the team is fully healthy we should see them putting their best foot forward on most nights and they’ll be able to push things successfully against a team currently offering little-to-no resistance.
In their last five meetings against the Blazers on their home court they’ve averaged 117.4 points.
Scoring shouldn’t be a problem for Utah in this one and neither should getting stops against a team that is averaging 95.8 points per game since returning from the All-Star break.
This is the highest NBA point spread we’ve seen this season. While the Jazz haven’t been reliable against the spread in these spots they should have no problem cruising past this Portland team and covering the number for those who bet online.
