Game Time: 10:00 PM ET, Wednesday, February 9th, 2022 

Venue:  Moda Center in the Rose Quarter, Portland, Oregon

Where to Watch:  NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Lakers -9, O/U 223.5

BetMGM:  Spread:  Lakers -9.5

VegasInsider:  Spread:  Lakers -9.5

WynnBet: Spread:  Lakers -9; O/U 223

Lakers: 26-28, 9th place Western Conference

Trail Blazers: 21-33, 11th place Western Conference

The NBA trade deadline strikes again.  Casual NBA fans think the NBA draft is the best way for a team to improve its prospects.  Not true.  Casual fans think the Free Agency period is the best way your team can lure a game-changing player to improve a team’s prospects.  Not true.  The truth is that the mid-season trade deadline is the best way to radically transfer a team.  The reason of course is that everyone is drunk with anticipation for the end of the season.  Top teams will shrug off the bottom end of their bench and whatever high priced player is on an expiring contract and whatever draft considerations it will take to get the last needed piece… Mid-level teams will realize that they are headed for mediocrity and are willing to trade their best players in hopes of rebuilding quickly without ever having been truly bad.  The bad teams are always trading and drafting and never getting the results they expect… so they keep doing it thinking this will be the time.  The worst teams will make multiple moves, not sure whether they are doing it for better players now or more draft picks later… but they try to do both.   The NBA trade deadline is on us now.  The NBA trade deadline is here.  

The Los Angeles Lakers are nearly powerless to use the NBA trade deadline.  LeBron James won’t be traded, PF Anthony Davis won’t be traded.  No one wants PG Russell Westbrook and no one can agree if Westbrook is a point guard or shooting guard, he makes too much money and has already blown up too many teams.  What else is on the roster… a broken down duo of SF Carmelo Anthony and C Deandre Jordan?... A further broken down C Dwight Howard… sure they are all famous names… but do they even play well anymore?... they certainly don’t play defense.  This top half of the roster is exactly the mistakes an NBA player agent would make when building a team.  The agent always wants to land the most famous client… that client’s abilities aren’t even discussed.  Vin Diesel has made a fortune acting, I guarantee you he has an agent.  Did that agent ever wonder if Vin Diesel is a good actor?.. No.  Vin Diesel is a famous name.  No matter how bad the performance, the agent only wants to sell the name.  Lakers GM Rob Pelinka is a new GM after being a longtime player agent.  He has twisted this roster into a mad nightmare of famous names that can barely perform anymore. The Lakers won’t be able to improve greatly through the trade deadline… as he has no one to really trade Unless someone wants to give up an all-star for 2nd round pick SF Talen Horton Tucker and undrafted free agent SG Austin Reeves?..  The Lakers are stuck waiting on perfect health for LeBron James and Anthony Davis… and maybe they can get into the playoffs.  

The Portland Trail Blazers are a mediocre team because their star PG Damian Lilliard is out with an abdominal injury… with him they are slightly above good.  They are winning the first round of the playoffs good.  The Blazers are full into the frenzy of the trade deadline.  They have made two very big trades!!  They have reworked the roster into something entirely different in the span of 72 hours.  They may not even have enough players suited up to put on a pretend game with the Lakers?  A few days ago the Trail Blazers traded SF Norman Powell and PF Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers for PG Eric Bledsoe, SF Justise Winslow, PF Keon Johnson, and the most important part a 2025 2ND ROUND DRAFT PICK.  It is hard to tell if the Trail Blazers want any of these players… this trade was all about dropping $$$ from their salary cap.  They followed that trade by trading SG CJ McCollum, PF Larry Nance Jr,  and SF Tony Snell (a legitimate NBA star) to the New Orleans Pelicans for SG Josh Hart, SG Nickeil Alexander-Walker, SG Tomas Satoransky… but wait there’s MORE!... the Blazers will also get the Pelicans 2022 first round draft pick if it lands between #5 and # 14.  If it doesn’t fall between those numbers than the Blazers will get the pick in the future sometime.  So that is yet another team that sheds salary and adds absolutely nothing to the roster that will surround PG Damian Lilliard.  We all have to watch the trade deadline tomorrow because Lilliard may spend all night tonight demanding to be sent to the team of his choice.. Most likely the Miami Heat or the Boston Celtics.  ( not kidding… the Celtics might be Lilliard’s best fit in the league considering their young stars and the load of junk they can give back).  Watch the Blazers… you don’t want to miss the punchline.

The Los Angeles Lakers have won 4 of their last ten games.  The last win was a fun win though.  They beat the New York Knicks in overtime 122-115.  LeBron James had a helluva game and they pulled off the rare “win in overtime AND cover a -5 point point spread”... you will rarely ever see that.  They lose games at the moment but are at least able to keep them competitive having gone 6-4 ATS during the 10.  Leading scorer LeBron James is also in contention for the scoring title this season.  If he accomplishes that, he will be the oldest scoring champ ever by half a decade.  Some time this week (if health permits) LeBron will surpass the great Kareem Abdul Jabbar in most NBA points scored of all time… no one will give him credit for this amazing feat as it counts postseason and regular season points together.  NBA purists and LeBron haters will point out that the league had less playoff games during the bulk of Kareem’s career.  So the record that actually counts is “most points in the REGULAR SEASON of all time”… which LeBron will break at the end of next season or the beginning of the next. By then LeBron haters will come up with a different reason that clearly the best NBA player of all time shouldn’t get credit for it.

The Portland Trail Blazers will have no real starting five.  They jettisoned lots and lots of players to try to rebuild around all -star PG Damian Lilliard and young PG Anfernee Simons?... or maybe they think they can make a team out of re-runs of PG Eric Bledsoe and SG Ben McLemore?... not likely, but we are running out of names to plug into the formula.  The Blazers have won 3 of their last ten games… and even that makes it sound better than they have actually been playing.  This team lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder TWICE… which is probably why they started getting rid of everybody.

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The Lakers are 26-28 on the season, but 24-30 ATS.  They have notched 30 Overs, 23 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 9-16 in road games.

Portland is 21-33 on the season, but 21-32-1 ATS.  They have logged 29 Overs, 25 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 5-20 in home games.  I wonder if any of the new players will bother renting or if they will just live in a hotel near the arena before they become free agents at season’s end?  I also wonder if they will get to know the good places to eat or just stick to the diner next to the hotel near the arena?

The Lakers are 11th in scoring with 110.9, 14th in rebounds with 44.9 per game, and 23rd in AST/TO ratio with 1.6. They are shooting 11th in FG%, 18th in 3PT%, and 29th in FT%.   They are also disastrous on defense where they rank 26th while allowing 112.3 ppg from opponents.

The Trail Blazers are 20th in scoring with 107.8 ppg, 24th in rebounds with 43.7 per game, and 24th in AST/TO ratio with 1.6. They are shooting 23rd in FG%, 12th in 3PT%, 21st in FT%.  They are also terrible on defense with ranked 27th while allowing 112.3 ppg from opponents.

Our prediction for Wednesday, February 9th is…. Lakers 118 - Blazers 99

The Lakers will roll over the Blazers while not playing everyone.  SG Russell Westbrook has had his troubles this season… he even got benched in the Lakers overtime win the other night.  Yet in this game he will get to mop up against a roster that is full of nobodies and has never really played together before.  It will be a Laker cakewalk.  The spread may reflect that which may scare you off the bet… but the Lakers are likely to win by more than 12 and will be resting guys before the 4th quarter.

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Portland is 70-48 ATS versus the Lakers since 1996.

The Lakers are 3-1 ATS versus Portland over the last 3 seasons.

Lakers: SF Carmelo Anthony (hamstring) Out ** PG Kendrick Nunn (ankle) Out *8 C Dwight Howard (back) Quest

Trail Blazers: PG Eric Bledsoe (achilles) Out ** PF Cody Zeller (knee) Out ** PG Damian Lilliard (abdominal) Out

Lakers: SF LeBron James, PF Stanley Johnson, C Anthony Davis, PG Russell Westbrook, PG Malik Monk

Blazers:  PG Anfernee Simons, SG ?, SF CJ Elleby, PF ?, C Jusuf Nurkic

Lakers

Points: LeBron James 29.1

Assists: Russell Westbrook 7.7

Rebounds: Anthony Davis 10.2

Steals: LeBron James 1.6

Blocks: Anthony Davis 2.2

Trail Blazers

Points: Damian Lilliard 24

Assists: Damian Lilliard 7.3

Rebounds: Jusuf Nurkic 10.8

Steals:  Robert Covington GONE

Blocks: Robert Covington  GONE

Lakers: Frank Vogel

Trail Blazers: Chauncey Billups