Portland Trail Blazers vs Washington Wizards Prediction: Two teams that are pretty much in the same areas

The NBA All-Star break is near and when we hit the break, a lot of combinations will be crucial to look at so that we can understand what teams remain in contention for the top-six or the Play-in spots. Therefore, each game becomes more crucial as we head deeper. In another crucial game of the NBA, we jump into the contest between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Washington Wizards.

Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers come into the game after winning 127:115 against the Lakers as Damian Lillard erupted for 40 points. They have won two of the last three but in an extended window, they have lost three of their last five games. Overall, due to multiple losing streaks, they have now been relegated to 29 losses and 28 wins. While Lillard has 35+ points continuously, the rest of the unit hasn’t backed them well. Matisse Thybule may help the defensive end but Anfernee Simons will need to recover his earlier season groove. Jerami Grant has been a bit off and if these two do their jobs, things will look brighter.

Washington Wizards

The Wizards enter the game after losing 126:135 despite a 34 points performance by Kristaps Porzingis. They have now lost four of their six games after they nabbed six wins in a row. Due to glaring inconsistencies earlier in the season, the team has only managed 26 wins and has ended up losing 30 games. The late bloom for the Wizards came when Kuzma, Porizingis, and Beal were doing a proactive job on offense. However, the injury to Kuzma has derailed things to some extent. Defensively, the Wizards have struggled for most parts and they will need to fix that end.

Injuries

• Trail Blazers: OUT: Jusuf Nurkic, Justise Winslow, Ibou Badjji. Game-Time Decision: Jerami Grant;
• Wizards: Game-Time Decision: Kyle Kuzma.

Expert Betting Tips

Both teams played last night so there must be exhaustion but the home-court advantage belongs to the Trail Blazers. However, Portland’s sloppy play may not inspire much confidence. Lillard has pretty much been the one-man army and at this point, he should be in the MVP conversation just on the sheer workload he is carrying. Anyway, I expect his workload to work wonders here. I predict a scoreline of 123:113 in favor of Portland.