Free Picks: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Brooklyn Nets

The Brooklyn Nets, winners in eight of their last ten, will head to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Portland Trail Blazers, who have won seven of their last ten, at the Moda Center in what is one of the most intriguing matchups of this week’s Tuesday night NBA slate. Can Portland bounce back after that ugly loss to the Mavericks, or will it be the shorthanded Nets that win the day?

What we have here is a showdown between two of the most offensively talented individuals in the NBA today in Portland’s Damian Lillard and Brooklyn’s James Harden, both of which are on the fringes of the MVP conversation right now. Lillard has had to do it himself for much of the last two months, but he finally got his partner in crime, CJ McCollum, back last week.

McCollum was rusty to start off, as could be expected after a two-month layoff, but he seems to be getting his sea legs under him pretty well after his fourth game back. While Dame and CJ have been reunited, the Nets’ duo of Harden and Kyrie Irving has been split up for Brooklyn’s upcoming road trip, with Irving joining the Nets other superstar, Kevin Durant, on the bench.

Despite these developments, we still like the Nets to win this game, and them being listed as -106 NBA odds underdogs is all the better for us. This is one of our top picks for today because, surprisingly, the Nets have gone 2-2 when Harden plays without both Durantula and Irving.

Brooklyn has been a solid road team this season, going 11-9 against the spread overall and 4-2 ATS as a road dog while the Blazers have generally had it tough playing at home in Portland’s Rose Quarter, amassing a 9-13 overall ATS record at home and a 6-9 ATS mark as a home favorite.

Since Beardo’s arrival in mid-January, the Nets have gone 15-5 straight up following a win and they’ve also been a real thorn in the side of those West Coast teams, posting a 13-4 ATS record against the Western Conference so far during this campaign.

The Beard himself especially likes playing the conference he used to torment with stepbacks for nearly a decade, putting up 28.2 points per game against foes from the West compared to just 22.9 against the East this season. With Irving out, we like Beardo to hit the over on his 46.5 points + assists + rebounds prop at decent -120 NBA odds as another of our best bets for today.

Harden has played four games without both Durant and Irving this season and has averaged 33.3 points, 10.5 dimes, and 8.0 rebounds in those contests, which would put us and Beardo right on track for the over on that player prop.

Another NBA pick we really like for this clash of offensive juggernauts is the over on Lillard’s 32.5 points prop at -120 NBA odds. The Blazers lost by 40 in their last outing, and Lillard wasn’t much help, missing all seven of his tries from deep.

Lillard has failed to hit a triple in only two other games this season, and both times he followed up the rough performance with a 34-point effort in his next time out. Tuesdays have also turned into Dame Time when the Blazers play, with Lillard averaging 33.0 points on Tuesday this season, which is his highest daily split.

• Portland is 6-9 ATS as a home favorite during this campaign
• Brooklyn is 13-4 ATS against the Western Conference this year
• James Harden has averaged 28.2 points against the Western Conference this season
• Damian Lillard has scored 34 points in each of his last 2 games following a 0-triples performance