Trail Blazers vs Lakers Picks and Predictions: Watch the Points Pile Up

The Portland Trail Blazers will be hoping to avoid a four-game losing streak when they head to Crypto.com Arena for a meeting with a Los Angeles Lakers team that is also struggling coming into this game. 

Will Portland roll into LeBron James’ territory and come away with a win? Keep reading our Blazers vs. Lakers NBA picks and predictions for Friday, December 31 to find out. 

Trail Blazers vs Lakers odds

Odds via the Covers Line, an average comprised of odds from multiple sportsbooks.

The public is all over the Lakers in this game, which is part of the reason they’ve gone from -4.5 to as high as -6 in some places. The total, meanwhile, opened rather high at 232, and you can find it anywhere from 229 to 232 as of writing. 

Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right until tip-off and be sure to check out the full NBA odds before betting to ensure you get the best number.

Trail Blazers vs Lakers predictions

• Prediction: Blazers +6 (-112)
• Prediction: Over 229.0 (-110)
• Best bet: Blazers +6 (-112)

Predictions made on 12/31/2021 at 12:30 a.m. ET.
Click on each prediction to jump to the full analysis.

Trail Blazers vs Lakers game info

• Location: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, CA
• Date: Friday, December 31, 2021
• Tip-off: 10:30 p.m. ET
• TV: SN!, SNLA, ROOT Sports NW

Trail Blazers vs Lakers betting preview

Injuries

Trail Blazers: Cody Zeller C (Questionable), Dennis Smith Jr. G (Questionable), Robert Covington F (Questionable), Ben McLemore G (Questionable), Jusuf Nurkic C (Questionable), Anfernee Simons G (Out), CJ McCollum G (Out).
Lakers: Austin Reaves G (Probable), Kent Bazemore F (Probable), Avery Bradley G (Questionable), Trevor Ariza F (Questionable), Anthony Davis F (Out), Kendrick Nunn G (Out).
Find our latest NBA injury reports.

Betting trend to know

The Lakers are 7-19 against the spread in their last 26 games following an ATS win. Find more NBA betting trends for Trail Blazers vs. Lakers.

Trail Blazers vs Lakers picks and predictions

Our predictions are compiled from the analysis of the spread and total and are indications of where we are leaning for this game.
Our best bet is the play that we like the most for this game, which we would actually put some of our bankroll behind.

Spread analysis

The Blazers will be hoping to get back on track against a lousy Lakers team on Friday, and they should be feeling pretty good about their chances heading into this one. Before allowing just 104 points in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, the Lakers had allowed 121.2 points per game in their previous five games. Los Angeles might have similarly struggled against Memphis had the Grizzlies not shot only 41.2 percent from the field. That was the first time in four games that Los Angeles held an opponent to less than 48.4 percent shooting, and it definitely seemed a bit flukey considering the Grizzlies missed a lot of good looks. 

Portland has had a pretty lousy year on both ends of the floor this season, but the team still has the firepower required to turn in a good offensive performance against this Los Angeles defense. Damian Lillard is not playing up to his standards this season, but he has been coming alive in the second half of December. Now, Lillard should be able to play well against a leaky Lakers backcourt. And it’s not like he won’t have help either, as Norman Powell is definitely capable of contributing on the perimeter. Also, Nassir Little and Larry Nance Jr. should be able to give the Blazers something in the frontcourt. They both play extremely hard and do the little things. 

Defensively, it helps that Portland has an energetic wing like Little to throw on LeBron here. He’s not going to be able to shut down the Lakers star, but his persistence could tire LeBron out later in the game. Also, the Blazers’ lousy defense could be helped by having Russell Westbrook out there. Portland can play off him and force him to shoot long jumpers. 

Prediction: Blazers +6 (-112)

Over/Under analysis

Almost everywhere you look, this total is in the 230’s and that’s why you need to be shopping around for the best odds. This one can currently be found at a much lower number if you look hard enough, and it’s still worth taking even at its highest point. The Lakers might be coming off of a solid defensive performance against the Grizzlies the other night, but this is a miserable defensive basketball team right now. And considering the Blazers are awful on that end of the floor, it’s hard to envision this being a low-scoring game. 

Over the last six games, only four teams in the league have a worse defensive rating than Los Angeles. That’s a great sign for Over bettors when you factor in that that Portland is 29th in the NBA in defensive rating for the whole season. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the Over is 11-7-2 in the Lakers’ 20 home games this season, and it’s also 4-2 in the team’s last six games. 

Prediction: Over 229.0 (-110)

Best bet

The Blazers have won and covered in three of their last four meetings with the Lakers, and they actually won by 15 when these teams met in Portland back on November 6. That was a game that LeBron missed for Los Angeles, but the Lakers did have Anthony Davis in that one and were generally more healthy for that matchup than they will be tonight. Obviously, you don’t want to put too much weight into a game without LeBron, but it is somewhat important to know which team has had the edge in the recent head-to-head history. 

Also, on top of the Blazers matching up pretty well with this version of the Lakers, it’s also worth noting that Los Angeles is just 6-14 against the spread in home games this year. The Lakers have actually lost those games by an average margin of 2.5 points, and it wouldn’t be that shocking if Porltand were to find a way to win this one outright. You should still take the points in this game, but it’s worth sprinkling a little on the money line.  

Pick: Blazers +6 (-112)

Pages related to this topic