The Portland Trail Blazers are in Salt Lake City to try and salvage the final game of an otherwise unsuccessful three-game road trip against the Utah Jazz Monday night.
Portland has a league-worst 1-9 road record and will face a Jazz team that features a balanced scoring attack and the best defensive center in the league in Rudy Gobert.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at the point spread, moneyline, and over/under, and see if we can’t help Blazer fans at least win some wagers on this trip, since it’s appearing unlikely the team will win any games until they get back to Portland.
Note: lines and odds are listed here as they stood at the time of writing, in this case about 9:00 am on Monday. By the time you’re able to place your wagers, those lines may have moved — especially if we were on the right track. Adjust your bets accordingly.
Portland Trail Blazers odds, point spread, moneyline, and over/under
WynnBet has established Utah as 7.5 point favorites at -310 to win with a team over/under of 115.5, while the Blazers are at +255 and 107.5.
If you’ve been paying attention to this column lately, you’ll know that the 17-2 Warriors were just 5.5 point favorites at home to the Blazers a few nights ago. So why are the 13-7 Jazz two points better than the league’s juggernaut?
I don’t know, but I do know enough to trust Vegas. Could be the fact that Portland is finishing up a road trip, or that they probably don’t have any defensive answers for Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Maybe some of what Gobert has can rub off on Jusuf Nurkic and Robert Covington, but I expect interior defense to make the difference in this one. Give the 7.5 points confidently.
The +255 number is tempting, but the Blazers haven’t been good enough to beat anyone other than Houston on the road all season. I will almost never advise you to bet three dollars to win one, so pass on the Jazz there too.
Should live wagering bump that Blazers number north of +300, I would be tempted to throw a few dollars in that direction.
A matchup between the fourth and seventh most potent scoring attacks in the league makes for a tempting over, but one of those irresistible forces — Portland’s offense — is going up against immovable objects Gobert, Bogdanovic, Rudy Gay, and Jordan Clarkson.
I haven’t seen any signs the Blazers are ready to break out of their road funk, and they’ve managed only 104.7 points per game on the road this season. Take the Blazers under and the overall under at 223 points, and leave the Jazz o/u alone.
Summary: Jazz +7.5, Portland under 107.5, game under 223
Portland area television and radio
Tonight’s game will tip off at 6:00 PM Pacific and can be seen locally on Root Sports Plus and heard on KPOJ 620 AM.
Next for the Trail Blazers
Mercifully, Portland returns to the friendly confines of the Moda Center for the next four games: against Detroit tomorrow, San Antonio on Thursday, Boston on Saturday, and the Clippers a week from tonight.