Seven games is a big enough margin for us to declare the Portland Trail Blazers one of the more pleasant surprises to start the new season. At 6-1 and 5 wins without a loss on the road, Portland is defying all odds. One of those road wins came in LA a little over a week ago, when the Blazers put up 136 points on Luka Doncic and the Lakers. I’m sure that’ll be their strategy for Friday night as well, but they’ll have to do it without Vit Krejci and Ja Morant. The former Grizzlies star contributed in that win with 23 points and 4 assists, his absence will certainly be felt in what should be another fast paced, high scoring game.
That’s the only play style the Lakers know how to play in realistically. LA leads the league in basically every relevant offensive metric through the first two weeks of the season, all thanks to a historic start by Doncic who is averaging the most points per game since the 1960s and Wilt Chamberlain dominating the NBA. And he’s not just chucking the ball for the sake of it, he’s having a very efficient start to the year as well. Along with Luka, I’d also point out the contributions of Walker Kessler who has brought in much needed size down low and is averaging a very solid double-double on high efficiency. The Lakers look like a well-oiled machine on offense, but can they sustain this level of play in an 82-game season?
Revenge is best served cold and I feel like this is a really good spot to back LA to get one back over the Trail Blazers. No Morant really hurts Portland, he’s been a reliable option on offense for them. Porland’s road form has been rather impressive, but the win streak has to come to an end at some point. I’m counting on the fire-power of the Lakers to show here, let’s back the home team to cover.
Trail Blazers vs Lakers Predictions: Lakers -2.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable up to -3.5
