NBA: Portland Trail Blazers vs Miami Heat Preview, Odds, Prediction

Two playoff contenders in their respective conferences, Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat, look to snap a negative streak they are currently riding. The guests from Oregon lost two in a row, both at home, ruining what could have been an excellent victorious series in Moda Center. On the other side, the Heat find themselves in a hole, with four consecutive defeats, three at the American Airlines Center in Miami. On both sides, the alarm already went off, and that especially goes for the hosts, who are at the .500 mark.

Preview

Portland Trail Blazers (25-18, +115) arrive in Florida with two losses in a row, one against Dallas Mavericks, 132-92, and the latter vs Brooklyn Nets, 116-112. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t expect to see them losing against the Nets, who were heavily handicapped, not having Kevin Durant and Kyrie at disposal, while Harden had issues with his neck.

The Blazers play open-minded and offensive basketball with low effort on the defensive side and primarily focusing on scoring. They have Damian Lillard, who is the second scorer of the NBA with 30.1 points. What the Trail Blazers need is the consistency coming from other players, because neither of them can score 20+ points each night.

CJ McCollum was injured, which is a massive problem for Terry Stotts, who needs to bring him back into the competitive rhythm slowly. He was 5-for-19 from the field against the Nets, shooting 4-for-12 for three, totaling 16 points.

Miami Heat (22-22, -175) lost to Memphis on the road, then Indiana in back-to-back matches, and finally against the Suns on Tuesday night, 110-100, all three at home. Erik Spoelstra’s side struggles to provide good performances, and that might be the reason why their management pushes hard to make some trades in this free agency.

Per several sources, Miami’s top pick is Kyle Lowry, Raptors’ point guard and a guy who knows how to win titles. Lowry is old, but he can be a massive addition to the Heat’s roster, and a typical playmaker who knows how to organize the game.

In the game against the Suns, Kendrick Nunn led the way with 25 points, but he had one assist. It is humiliating that the starter with the most assists is Bam Adebayo with six. That is why the Heat look to find a stable and reliable playmaker and not a combo guard. We’ll see what the price is for that, and we just might see Nunn leaving the team in exchange for Lowry if the deal takes place in the first place.

Head to Head Games

We haven’t seen the Trail Blazers and the Heat playing against one another this year, which will be their first clash.

Prediction

This is a highly unpredictable game, but we wanted to cover it anyway. It generates a lot of attention, and we have to follow the needs of our readers. The line for the total number of points is set at 217.5, and for us, that is a plus, mostly because of Portland, who will prefer to play fast-paced basketball and force the Heat to play quicker and more open. Plus, their defense is a bit softer than it used to be a few weeks ago.