NBA: Portland Trail Blazers vs Sacramento Kings Pick and Predictions 10/19/2022

Game: 10:10 PM ET, Wednesday, October 19th

Venue:  Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass 

Trail Blazers: 27-55, Missed Playoffs by a lot; 0-0 fresh start

Kings: 30-52, Missed Playoffs by a lot; 0-0 fresh start

DraftKings:  Point Spread: Kings -1.5; 225.5 O/U

Don Best: Point Spread: Kings -1.5; 225 O/U

William Hill: Point Spread: Kings -1.5; 225 O/U

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

Kings: PG De'Aaron Fox, SG Kevin Huerter, SF Harrison Barnes, PF Keegan Murray, C Domantas Sabonis 

The NBA season is here… and if you don’t watch these two teams play their first game… you may not watch them all season.  The Trail Blazers were bad last year and may have gotten worse with the offseason changes.  The Kings have always been bad, yet last year they pulled off a roster changing trade by nabbing C Domantas Sabonis… a true stat stuffer.  Though every ESPN talking head mentioned that the Kings dumbly traded their best young player and best guard in order to get Sabonis.  Neither of these teams will be good this season.  Both these teams WILL have a come to Jesus moment when they decide to go all in on tanking for Victor W, the 7’4 freshman who will be the #1 pick in the next Draft.  When the tanking starts?... Players could be on the move… specifically PG Damian Lilliard and PG De’Aaron Fox.

The Portland Trail Blazers were a perennial 7th or 8th seed in the Playoffs for years… and they were a very effective one.  The kind of 7th or 8th seed that could win games over higher seeded teams (in the first round).  They did it by having one of the greatest guard tandems in league history.  PG Damian Lilliard and SG CJ McCollum… but the years stretched on with little to no improvement.  It wasn’t the guards fault… It was the Portland curse.  This team has always had an injured big man… or a draft bust big man… or simply no quality big man at all.  They were slow to make big changes until last season when they traded SG CJ McCollum away to the New Orleans Pelicans for an assortment of magic beans… CJ instantly became a slightly better player than he had been in Portland (which was already pretty great)... and suddenly New Orleans was hotly competitive in the Playoffs.  In contrast the Blazers were simultaneously suffering from Damian Lilliard being out with an abdominal injury and the collapse of ANY usable roster pieces.  They finished among the dregs of the league.  If Damian is still suffering from that injury instead of 100%... He can be satisfied with his HOF decade of a career so far… and with his 50 million dollars per year salary… and he should pack his bags for a new destination… though few teams could even afford to add him and his salary.

The Sacramento Kings have always been bad… sure not in the 90’s… when they were good for a few years into the early 2000’s… but ever since they have been bad.  They have also gone through ownership changes, bad GM’s, coaches put in horrible coaching positions where this was the last branch to grab as they fell out of the tree.  This was the team that Hired Luke Walton to be their head coach just a few seasons ago?  They are committed to not picking a course of improvement and sticking with it for too long.  The current owner Vivek Ranadive actually suggested to his coaches that they plant the Center under the basket on the offensive end… that Center would never come back for defense… that way every possession they could throw the ball deep for an easy lay-up.  He didn’t seem to understand that they would also be playing 5 on 4 with no big man on defense… and that all the guards had to do was flare to midcourt to intercept half of those passes.  They never did it… but the story speaks volumes on how much the brain trust doesn’;t actually know about what they should be doing.  They added Domantas Sabonis and his Max contract… They have De’Aaron Fox and his large contract… and they need 5-6 more quality players to be anything.  The bad news for the Kings is that if they tank and land the #2 pick… the guy slotted there is Scoop Jackson… a powerful young point guard…  Which is what they think is exactly what they already have with De’Aaron Fox… and if they got the #1 pick?... They just added Sabonis!  It’s a no win situation… which is exactly what Sacramento is… until they move to Vegas.

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The Blazers finished last season 27th in scoring with 106.2 points per game, 26th in FG% with 44.2%, 23rd in 3-point percentage with 34.6%, and 27th in offensive rebounds.  Sad.  They also were hopeless on defense. 

The Kings finished last season 16th in scoring with 110.3 points per game (but they spent half the season with CJ McCollum), 20th in FG percentage with 46%, 24th in 3-point percentage with 34.4%, and 26th in offensive rebounds. On defense they were a lame duck.

Our prediction for Wednesday, October 19th is…. Kings 110 - Blazers 99

Bet on the Kings.  Seriously.  I have never before thought to do this, but Bet on the Kings!  Of the two teams the Kings have an actual ready to play duo of players… The Blazers have Lilliard and nothing much else.  

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Sacramento is 22-10 (+11 UNITS) against Northwest opponents the last 3 seasons.
Portland is 32-50 ATS IN ALL GAMES (-23 UNITS) the last 2 seasons.

Blazers: PG Damian Lilliard,  Damian missed last season with a painful injury if he is still not healthy… or if he has been slowed down somehow… The Blazers should sit him longer and get those ping pong balls.  Plus Lilliard has always been great, but also undersized.  If he is permanently slowed he will be of little use.

Kings:  C Domantas Sabonis.  Sabonis has always been a walking double double.  The man can score and rebound.  That needs to still be the case after another year having it gone unnoticed by most.

Blazers: Chauncey “tall order” Billups

Kings: Mike “its a paycheck” Brown