ASA play 8* on: Under 224 Portland Trailblazers vs. LA Lakers, 9PM ET

This will be an interesting game considering LeBron’s political agenda, beef with Donald Trump and how he and his team plays overall in this situation. We are putting all that aside and are focused on the numbers, facts, and statistics to produce an informed decision on this outcome. The first three games of this series saw total points scored of 193, 199, 224 and then 250. In the most recent game, which was extremely high scoring the Blazers looked physically drained after an emotional run in the Bubble games just to make the post season. Now they get a few extra days to rest which will certainly impact their defensive effort which was missing in Games 3 and 4. Our models are predicting a pace or tempo much like the first two games of this series as Portland realizes they can’t get into a shootout with the Lakers as they don’t have as many scoring options as L.A. does. If they can keep this game close late though, they have guys capable of making pressure shots and pulling out an upset. Consider this, the Blazers were 3rd in field goal attempts per game this season at 90.9 FGA but in this series, they are averaging 82.2FGA per game. Portland will have to run more of their offense through Nurkic and grind this game without Dame Lillards 30PPG and 3-points shooting. The Lakers will be happy to try and close this series out and stay healthy in the process. And let’s not forget the Lakers had the 2nd worst offensive efficiency numbers in the Bubble games with only Washington being worse.