Portland Trail Blazers vs LA Lakers Predictions, Tips and Preview

Steffen Schmidt - October 22, 2022

Los Angeles Lakers will be searching for their maiden win of the season on Sunday afternoon when they host Portland Trail Blazers.

• The Lakers looked solid in the defeat to the Clippers on Thursday
• The Blazers were by far the worst team in the preseason
• The Blazers will struggle defensively in this matchup

Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Lakers Tips

• Los Angeles Lakers -5.5 @ +100 (2.00)

• Los Angeles Lakers -2.5 in the 1st Quarter @ +102 (2.02)

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Analysis and Reason for Predictions

The Blazers are likely in for another struggling campaign on the West

Portland Trail Blazers were the worst NBA team in the preseason by a mile. However, they stepped up just when it mattered, beating Sacramento Kings 108-115 on the road on the opening day of the regular season.

It is hard to take much from this win because it was by no means a master-class showing from Jason Kidd’s men and the opponent was by no means a contender on the West.

Damian Lillard had a quiet night, going just 5-for-18. Jusuf Nurkic was just 3-for-9 from the floor as well.

In their absence, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons stepped up as the best players of the team in the opening outing.

It will be very interesting to see how this Blazers’ team will fare against Los Angeles Lakers in the clash between two sides with fairly similar roster quality.

The Lakers looking to bounce back from the opening two defeats

Los Angeles Lakers opened the season with two expected defeats to the likes of Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers.

They even did a decent job of staying competitive against the Clippers on Thursday night despite Russell Westbrook had one of his horrendous performances without a single field goal scored in the game.

Anthony Davis was much better than in the first game. He bagged 25 points with a 9-for-16 shot from the field.

This Lakers’ team still posses quality with the likes of Davis and James obviously. We also have to mention Lonnie Walker who ended the last game as the highest-scoring Laker with 26 points.

The quality is on LA’s side here

This is a good matchup for Los Angeles Lakers. The Trail Blazers traditionally have weak defense. This is a back-to-back game for the visitors who had to face the likes of Phoenix Suns last night at Moda Center. We can only see the odds on the Lakers’ win dropping more before the start of the game. You can back the hosts to win in -5.5 spread at the +100 odds. The second pick is the Lakers to win the first quarter in a -2.5 spread at the +102 odds.