The Portland Trail Blazers have lost 20 of their last 22 games. They’ve dropped 10 in a row, covering just once. If tanking was an art form, they’d be Pablo Picasso. Their latest one-sided piece was a 50-point thrashing at the hands of the Mavs as 19.5-point underdogs. Today, they’ll be 19.5-point dogs on BetMGM again as they end the season at home versus the Utah Jazz.
R.I.P. City
Portland’s opening night starting lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic is a distant memory. Lillard’s season ended 35 games in, McCollum was shipped off to New Orleans, and Nurkic’s sole action on the court recently was when he chucked a fan’s cell phone. Ticketholders are now being treated/subjected to starters like Brandon Williams, CJ Elleby, Drew Eubanks, and other names I may or may not be making up. The only way the 27-54 Blazers could telegraph their tanking any harder is if they winked at the camera every time they inbounded the ball.
Vegas has tried their best to inflate spreads enough to reflect the current state of basketball in Portland, but like Chauncey Billups’ team, they’ve been coming up short. The Blazers have failed to cover four of their last five spreads as double-digit underdogs. Portland owns the worst combined Player Impact Estimate in the NBA and they haven’t been afraid to flaunt it in their quest to boost their chances of getting the first pick in the 2022 draft.
Since 2003, 13 NBA games have tipped off with a spread of 19.5 points or greater. Portland’s matchups two days ago and today account for 15.4% of that.
A Utah win would lock up the Western Conference’s fifth seed for the Jazz. They’re 3-0 versus the Blazers this season, winning by 22, 15, and 38 points.
Stats provided by Basketball Reference, teamrankings.com and nba.com.
