NBA: Brooklyn Nets VS Portland Trail Blazers Pick and Predictions 11/17/2022

Game: 10:10 PM ET,  Thursday, November 17th, 2022

Venue: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon

Where to Watch: NBA LEAGUE PASS

Nets: 6-9, 12th place Eastern Conference

Blazers: 10-4, 1st place Western Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  Blazers -1.5, O/U 220.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: N/A

Fanduel: Point Spread: Blazers -2; O/U 220.5

Nets: PF Royce O'Neale, SF Kevin Durant, C Nic Claxton, PG Edmond Sumner, SG Joe Harris

Blazers: PF Jerami Grant, SF Josh Hart, C Jusuf Nurkic, PG Damian Lilliard, SG Anfernee Simons

An inter-conference battle between teams that are surprising everyone all the time.  If you asked 100 NBA writers who would have more wins after 12-13 games of NBA action this year?  All 100 would have said the Brooklyn Nets.  The Brooklyn Nets were supposed to ride the scoring talents of SF Kevin Durant and PG Kyrie Irving all the way to the top!  All they needed was a healthy PG/PF Ben Simmons to play the hardcore defense we know he is capable of… and to dish some assist.  Only none of that came to be.  Kyrie Irving launched his atomic bomb level headache for management, ownership, fans, and the entire league which seems to be a yearly occurrence.  Ben Simmons is simply no longer mentally capable of taking the floor… and Kevin Durant, while still being great, is left to shoulder the entire burden.  The results are 12th place after 13 games played.  The season is young… There is plenty of time.  This team is a disaster and they have 88 million dollars of salary cap tied into two players who are simply not playing.  The Portland Trail Blazers are surprising everyone for better reasons.  They are really good! They are winning… and they are doing it so well that they recently slid into first place in the West!  I’m serious… the Pacific Northwest team that has one star… and a bunch of nobodies are playing so well together that they are redefining how we should look to rebuild a team.  Both these teams and these results (which were unthinkable just two months ago) seem to be highlighting the sudden change of hierarchy in the NBA… LeBron James and Anthony Davis are stuck on a bad team… Russell Westbrook is no longer a star to anyone… now just a heel.  Two of the Big Three in Golden State are not shining brightly yet this season Klay, Draymond… Kevin Durant doesn’t move the needle in the direction of winning by himself… Kyrie has sabotaged any chance he had of ever getting another NBA Max contract again.. Let alone a contract worth half the Max (he isn’t worth whatever headache)... Jimmy Butler isn’t winning in Miami despite still playing well… It seems we have reached a sudden turn on the NBA… The new stars are Giannis, Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Zion when he plays.  The old stars are dimming rapidly.

The Brooklyn Nets were completely housed in their last game!  They lost to the Sacramento Kings 153-121.  That is not a misprint… 153 - 121! 7 Kings scored in double figures against the Nets… The best among them was bench player Terrance Davis who scored 31 points got 9 rebounds and 5 assists in just 26 minutes.  The Nets scored also… but on the defensive end they simply put up no fight whatsoever. Kevin Durant had 27 points, with 18 points from some guy named Sumner…. And Ben Simmons even got in the action with 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench and a terrible -10 on the +/- scale.  The Nets are on a 2-game losing streak and have lost 3 of their last 5.  They are 3 games below .500… and seriously trying to figure out if they want to let PG Kyrie Irving back on the team… but mostly they wish someone like the Raptors or Heat would offer anything for him in a trade.

The Portland Trail Blazers are all smiles and sunshine.  They have won 5 of their last 7 games and have climbed into first place in the West.  They beat the San Antonio Spurs in their last game 117-110. PF Jerami Grant had 29 points, PD Damian Lilliard had 22 points, 11 assist, and SG Anfernee Simons had 23 points while shooting 5 of 10 from beyond the arc.  SG Anfernee Simons sudden impact on last season’s squad while Damian Lilliard was out with injury gave the Blazers the courage to trade CJ McCollum.  Simons is not better than McCollum… but he is not worse either… and he saves the team 40 million do;;ars on the salary cap (for now).

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BRK: 6-9, 5-9-1 ATS, 6=9 O/U, 3-5 on the road.

POR: 10-4, 11-3 ATS, 4-9-1 O/U, 4-2 in home games.

The Nets are 18th in scoring with 110.8 points per game, 28th in rebounds with 40 per game, 8th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8, and 1st in blocks with 7.2 per game.

The Blazers are 23rd in spring with 109.9 points per game, 18th in rebounds with 43.6 per game, 26th in AST/TO ratio with 1.4, and 26th in blocks with 3.9.

Our prediction for Thursday, November 17th is…. Blazers 126 - Nets 118

Bet on the Blazers.  The Nest are a mess… and not likely to find themselves on the road in Portland. In fact they are much more likely to boil down further as KD is approaching another D-Day with public trade requests coming soon.

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The Nets are 1-5 ATS after a game where they allowed 55% or better shooting the last 3 seasons.
The Blazers are 7-2 ATS when the total is 220-229.5 this season.

Nets: Edmond Sumner.  Why?  Who knows… I’m not even sure he will keep playing in the league… You might as well see him now while you can.

Blazers: SG Anfernee Simons.  You can say you saw him before anyone else knew who he was.

Nets: Jacques “Steve Gone” Vaughn

Blazers: Chauncey “all swagger still works” Billups.