New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Picks and Odds Dec 21

New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Betting Preview

WagerTalk NBA handicapper Tony Finn offers his New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers betting preview for Tuesday, December 21. At the time of posting, the Pelicans have climbed to a 2.5-point home favorite over the visiting Blazers, with the total at 217.5 points.

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Tues, Dec 21	NBA Betting Notes
Point Spread:	New Orleans Pelicans -2.5 vs Portland Trail Blazers
Total:	217.5 Points
Game Time:	8:10pm ET / 5:10pm PT
Arena:	Smoothie King Center
TV:	Bally Sports New Orleans

New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Analysis

Portland Trail Blazers (13-18, 11th in NBA – West) and New Orleans Pelicans (10-21, 14th in NBA – West) will gather at the Smoothie King Center tonight in the Big Easy for some New Orleans style hoops. Brandon Ingram and Damian Lillard and the featured attractions in this Western Conference showdown.

The Trail Blazers picked up a significant victory Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies in a 105-100 win. The victory marked the second straight that followed a five-game losing streak. Despite trailing by 11 early, Lillard and the Blazers finished the first quarter strong. Lillard accounted for 16 of the team’s 28 points, connecting on 4-of-6 shots from the field.

“This is a big-time win for us,” Blazers coach Chauncy Billups told the post-game media. “I thought we just showed great resolve. It could have gone a lot of different ways. We just kept fighting. Everybody knows about our struggles on the road thus far in the season. We’re understanding now how hard we have to play to be able to compete in this league, and now we’re starting to play with a little more from the neck up a little bit — play a little smarter.”

On Sunday night, the Pelicans were in Philadelphia for a contest against the East’s Sixers. The game never saw tipoff and postponed COVID health and safety protocols. Since Friday, New Orleans hasn’t played an official game and is well-rested heading into tonight’s contest. Devonte’ Graham didn’t miss a beat following his 60-foot bank shot in Oklahoma City this past Wednesday. Graham hit eight 3-pointers and added two late-game free throws in overtime to finish with 26 points in a 116-112 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.

“What I see is that we’re growing, and early in the season, we were giving ourselves an opportunity, but we were falling short,” Pelicans first-year coach Willie Green said. “Now we still have a ton of games left ahead of us, but I like what we’re doing. We’re starting to find our rhythm, starting to find what environments that we can play in down the stretch of games.”

The DraftKing Sportsbook positioned the visiting Blazers as 1-point favorites in the visitors’ role despite owning a road mark of 2-11. Following a seven-game losing streak, Portland closed their most recent homestand with a 125-116 straight-up victory against the spread cover over the Charlotte Hornets. The first stop in the team’s short two-game road trip found the Blazers earning a 105-100 win and ATS cover against a red-hot Memphis Grizzlies squad.

New Orleans Pelicans

• Pelicans average 109.9 points per game while allowing 112.6 points to their opponents per event.
• Brandon Ingram leads the Pels in scoring with an average of 23.3 points per game.
• New Orleans has a 7-5 mark since their 3-16 start.
• The Pelicans reside at the bottom of the Western Conference table with a 10-21 record.
• Zion Williamson has yet to play this season and is expected to miss another 4-6 more weeks while recovering from a foot injury he sustained last winter.
• The Pelicans rank in the bottom third of the league in a three-point shooting percentage connecting on just 33.9 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.

Portland Trail Blazers

• The Trail Blazers surrender 111.0 points per game while being outscored by 2.5 points per game on the season.
• Norman Powell tallied 20 points in the second half of Sunday’s win in Memphis and is a big reason why the Blazers have won consecutive games for the first time since November 23.
• The Blazers outrebounded the Grizzlies 51-33 in the Sunday victory..

New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Injury Report

Portland Trail Blazers
G Damian Lillard (hamstring) is probable.
G CJ McCollum (lung) is out.
C Cody Zeller (knee) is out.

New Orleans Pelicans
F Daulton Hommes (leg) is questionable.
G Didi Louzada (Suspension) is out.
F Zion Williamson (foot) is out.

New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Prediction

For only the second time in December, the Blazers held an opponent to 100 points or fewer. In addition, the Blazers contested nearly 65 percent of the Memphis shot attempts at the rim and inside the arc, holding the Grizzlies to just 28.5 percent shooting from the field.

If there is an indicator that a team is beginning to be cohesive, it comes with evidence that a squad is defending at a high level. Memphis sharpshooter Desmond Bane was held to just 1-of-8 from distance in the Blazers Sunday win on the Mississippi while shooting over 40 percent on the season entering the affair.

Jusuf Nurkic and Larry Nance Jr. are controlling the paint and are working a two-person frontcourt pseudo pick and roll that makes the backcourt of Portland dangerous with wide-open looks from the perimeter.

Powell has picked up a large share of injured CJ McCollum’s missed scoring. Powell registered his fifth 20-point performance in his last seven games.

While the Pelicans have continued improving and growing this season without Zion, the Blazers are experiencing positive regression. They are in line to pick up another win before heading home for a trio of tough outs with matchups against the Nets, Mavericks, and the Jazz.

The WagerTalk pick to click on Tuesday night in the Big Easy is a play on Lillard and Co. plus the small handicap.

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— WagerTalk (@WagerTalk) December 21, 2021

New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers Preview from GoldSheet

Not too late, perhaps, for Portland to turn things around with back-to-back wins after slumping (7 straight losses), and off of only the second road success of the season when besting what had been a hot Memphis on Sunday. Damian Lillard is back on fire, scoring 75 points across 75 minutes of playing time in the past two games, but drill a bit deeper and note that the Blazers have been playing better defense lately, even when losing, ranking 13th defensively over the past two weeks. With Norman Powell (28 points in the win over the Griz) also recently picking up some of the scoring slack for the still-absent CJ McCollum, Portland might be a team to watch into New Year’s.

The Pels have won 3 of 4 themselves, including a success vs. the Bucks, though it was a watered-down version of Milwaukee with no Giannis or Khris Middleton, after beating the Thunder on a 61-foot Devonte Graham heave at the buzzer. Wins are wins, we know, but those sorts of dynamics aren’t going to replicate often, and new HC Willie Green still not getting much help from his bench, which ranks third worst in the league. Play Portland.

Tuesday’s NBA Stat Sheet

Each day, WagerTalk handicapper Ralph Michaels puts together his NBA Stat Sheet, which offers a head-to-head comparison for how teams are performing in a number of key areas heading into a game. Click here to download Tuesday’s sheet, with notes on tonight’s New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers contest.

NBA Tip-Off Show

Join Joe Raineri, Tony Finn, Skee Profit and Rob Veno for the NBA Tip-Off Show at 4:15pm ET / 1:15pm PT as we discuss tonight’s marquee games. Stay up-to-date on the latest NBA news, stats, analysis, and predictions with our panel of professional handicappers as they preview tonight’s NBA action, including this New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers clash, from a betting perspective.

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WagerTalk’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the NBA point spreads, moneylines, first half lines and betting percentages for all of Tuesday’s NBA games, including this New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trail Blazers showdown, from your desktop or phone.

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