Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Lakers – 8/22/20 NBA Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trailblazers collide in a pivotal Game 3 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on Saturday night.

The Los Angeles Lakers will be feeling much better about themselves after levelling the series with a dominant 111-88 win over the Trailblazers in game 2. Anthony Davis had his issue is in the series opener, but he had no issues in this one as he led the way with 31 points, 11 rebounds and three assists on 13 of 21 shooting, Kentavious-Caldwell Pope added 16 points while LeBron James had just 10 points with seven assists. As a team, the Lakers shot 47 percent from the field and 14 of 38 from the 3-point line as they held the Trailblazers to just 39 points in the first half, before pouring in 32 points in the third quarter to lead by as many as 33 points.

Meanwhile, the Portland Trailblazers are going back to the drawing board after getting routed on Thursday. Damian Lillard has been on a tear in the bubble, but he finished with just 18 points and one assist, CJ McCollum added just 13 points while Carmelo Anthony finished with just two points on one of six shooting. As a team, the Trailblazers shot just 40 percent from the field and a miserly eight of 29 from the 3-point line as they never really looked in the contest after falling behind in the first half. No player outside of Lillard looked good on the offensive end and he had his worst game in the bubble.

Looking at the betting trends, the Lakers are 1-5 ATS in their last six games as a favorite, 1-5 ATS in their last six Conference Quarterfinals games and 1-6 ATS in their last seven games overall. The Trailblazers are 16-33-2 ATS in their last 51 Conference Quarterfinals games, 3-1-1 ATS in their last five games as an underdog and 12-4-1 ATS in their last 17 games against a team with a winning record.

Head to head, the over is 4-1 in the last five meetings in Portland, the Lakers are 5-1 ATS in the last six meetings in Portland and the Lakers are 23-47 ATS in the last 70 meetings overall.

The Lakers needed to respond after getting dropped in Game 1 and they did that in fine fashion as Davis was just unstoppable on Thursday. It would be all too easy to assume the Lakers can repeat that performance to go up 2-1 in the series, but I’m still confident the Trailblazers can turn it around here. Lillard has been the best player in the bubble and the Lakers have been anything but consistent. I don’t think the Trailblazers pull off the upset, but I like their chances of getting the cover in what should be a close one.