Portland Trail Blazers vs Cleveland Cavaliers Prediction: Slumping Trail Blazers take on elite defense of Cavs

The NBA midseason is on and this is a window where we witness a bunch of trades as teams either get deep for a Playoffs-based run while there are teams that reset their rosters and look for young talent or picks to build long-term. One team that may need to make a bunch of trades is the Portland Trail Blazers and they will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in a cross-Conference battle. 

The Trail Blazers come into this game after losing 106:109 against the Orlando Magic despite a 30 points outing by Damian Lillard. They have now lost four in a row and have lost eight of their last ten games, due to which their record is now 21 losses and 19 wins, a big difference from earlier in the season when they were around 60% wins. While their defense has been decent, offensively, the Trail Blazers have struggled with Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons not scoring like before. One big issue for Portland has been their long-range shooting. 

The Cavaliers come into this game after losing 114:116 against the Utah Jazz despite a 46 points performance by Donovan Mitchell. The Cavs have won three of their last five games and in an extended period, they have lost five of their last nine games. However, they still have a strong record of 26 wins and 16 losses. Donovan has been the major propeller on the offensive end while Darius Garland has been a regular contributor, however, overall, the Cavs prefer low-scorers(210 or below) as their defense is their strength. They play with the slowest pace and it means low-scorers by definition.

• Trail Blazers: OUT: Justise Winslow, Nassir Little. QUESTIONABLE: Damian Lillard. PROBABLE: Gary Payton II;
• Cavaliers: OUT: Dean Wade, Dylan Windler. QUESTIONABLE: Ricky Rubio. PROBABLE: Jarrett Allen.

• Expected Leading Scorers: Donovan Mitchell (31-36 Points), Damian Lillard(28-33 Points);
• Expected Leading Rebounders: Jusuf Nurkic(11-14 Rebounds), Jarrett Allen(9-12 Rebounds);
• Expected Leading Playmakers: Darius Garland(7-9 Assists), Damian Lillard(7-9 Assists).

The Cavaliers have been shutting teams down at a great frequency and for the Trail Blazers, a defense like that can spell doom as their offense doesn’t have the zip it had earlier. One big challenge for the Cavs will be containing Damian Lillard but because their bigs are able to switch, the challenge will be huge for Damian himself. I believe this will be a low-scoring battle with the Trail Blazers pinching out a late win. I predict a scoreline of 107:103 in favor of Portland.