The (17-15) Portland Trail Blazers and (19-11) Denver Nuggets are set to play on Friday at Ball Arena in a battle between Western Conference contenders. The Blazers have lost consecutive games to Oklahoma City and three of their past four. The Nuggets have reeled off consecutive wins over Charlotte and Memphis after losing to the Lakers. Denver is 10-3 at home this season, and Portland is 10-9 in road games. The Nuggets defeated the Trail Blazers on Dec. 8, while Portland defeated Denver on Oct. 24.
Tip-off is at 9:00 p.m. ET. The Nuggets are 5.5-point spread favorites, and the game total is 234.5 points scored.
Portland has fallen out of its winning ways, losing 12 of its past 20 after starting the season 10-4. The Blazers are a winning team but need more consistency over the next stretch of games to keep its solid start intact. Beating a Denver team with legitimate championship aspirations would be a great start.
Portland was outscored by a total of five points in its losses to OKC, who won once over its previous six games. In Wednesday's loss, Damian Lillard was held to 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting, and Anfernee Simons scored 12 on 4-for-11 shooting. As a team, Portland outshot the Thunder from the field and three-point range but turned the ball over 20 times and gave up 52 points in the paint.
In sync to kick things off ??#RipCity pic.twitter.com/6EDyblEwmA
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) December 22, 2022
This season, the Trail Blazers are averaging 112.1 points per game, shooting 47.7 percent from the floor and 38.9 percent from distance, the best three-point shooting percentage in the NBA. Portland's offensive rating, adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced, is ranked 8th, per Dunks and Threes. It's ranked just 26th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.57).
The Trail Blazers' defense is giving up 111.7 points per game, and their opponents are shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from long range. Their adjusted defensive rating is ranked 19th in the league. Portland's opponents boast a 54.0 effective field goal percentage.
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