Albert
·
19h
My Prediction
San Antonio Spurs by 7Let me tell you, in today's clash between the Portland Trail Blazers and the San Antonio Spurs, a fan would be left without nails to bite.
The Portland Trail Blazers have been strutting their stuff lately. Anfernee Simons, for instance, has been firing up the scoreboard with an average of 18.9 points per game in the last month. Meanwhile, Deandre Ayton has been a beast on the board, pulling down 9.6 rebounds per game over the same period, which is even more impressive considering he’s keeping up with his season average of 10.2 rebounds.
On the other hand, San Antonio Spurs fans have been feeling some love for Victor Wembanyama. Last month, the guy was basically a walking bucket, average 27.0 points a game. And I have to add a word for Jeremy Sochan here, who piled up, on average, 14.7 points, and 9.1 rebounds per game in the previous month.
One can't ignore the influence of injuries. For the Trail Blazers, key players like Dalano Banton and Matisse Thybulle are out, which could certainly deflate their sails a bit.
Looking at the previous face-offs, the Spurs seem to have a bit of an edge with three wins out of the five last games against the Trail Blazers. Couple that with the Spurs' slightly less embarrassing season record of 14-13, when compared to Portland's 9-18, and you might get a hint of where this is going.
The recent results for each team show a bit of a mixed bag, with the Spurs taking a win against Atlanta and the Blazers delivering a surprise against the Nuggets. However, let's keep in mind that the Spurs are sitting two steps above the Blazers at number 11 in the Western Conference standings.
After all's said and done, while the Trail Blazers have some promising talent in Simons and Ayton, the Spurs have been outperforming them lately, and even managed to slot in a win from their last face-off. So if I were to put my money on it, I'd say...
Albert’s Prediction: San Antonio Spurs by 7