Trail Blazers vs. Hawks NBA Preview and Free Pick for March 14 (Archive)
The Portland Trail Blazers (26-40) are looking for a rare winning streak against the Atlanta Hawks (33-34) this Monday evening. Portland ended its embarrassing six-game losing streak with a 127-118 win over the Wizards on Saturday. The Hawks are looking to finish 3-0 in a homestand after beating the Pacers 131-128 last night. Let’s look at this matchup.
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Atlanta Hawks
Monday, March 14, 2022 – 07:30 PM EDT at State Farm Arena
The Hawks (28-39 ATS) are a 12.5-point favorite over the Trail Blazers (26-39-1 ATS) at BMR’s top-rated sportsbooks. Both teams are in the bottom five at covering the spread this season. The Hawks are 4-3 ATS as a double-digit favorite and Portland is 3-7 ATS as a double-digit underdog. Will Portland get blown out again?
Atlanta: Trae’s Big Day
When these teams met in early January, Atlanta’s Trae Young exploded for a career-high 56 points. He also had 14 assists, but Portland came back in the fourth quarter behind Anfernee Simons’ 43 points in a 136-131 win. Portland had four starters with over 20 points. The Hawks lost despite shooting 54.5% from the field.
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Young was back at it last night against the Pacers, scoring 47 points, including a hot night from three (7-for-10). No one else for the Hawks scored more than 15 points, though all starters were in double digits.
Young usually follows a 40-point game with a game under 30 points, though in his last opportunity, he had a 41-point game against Toronto and a 31-point game against a tough Boston defense. Either way, Young is going to want to get his teammates more involved on Monday night after he had only his sixth game of the season with fewer than six assists.
But Portland is an ideal defense to go off against. The Trail Blazers allow the third-highest FG% (.475), the highest 3P% (.371), and the most assists per game (26.3). Portland is 29th in Defensive Rating and 29th in road games where the team is 9-22 this year.
Portland: An Aberration?
You could have profited from betting on Portland to get blown out recently. The Trail Blazers lost their first six games out of the All-Star break and five of those losses were by 30-plus points.
Since the break, Portland is shooting 39.3% from the field – every other team is at 44.4% or higher. But in returning home to face Washington on Saturday, the Trail Blazers finally played a competent game and led for nearly 44 minutes. Portland’s injury report was still extensive with Simons and Jusuf Nurkic out, but Josh Hart poured in 44 points – his previous career high was 30 points. He made a season-high six threes in the best game of his career.
The Hart performance really came out of nowhere after he had 11 points and shot 4-of-23 from the field in his previous two games combined. Rookie Trendon Watford also broke 20 points for the second game in a row after not scoring more than 13 points in his first 38 games this season. This is what the injuries are doing to bring up Portland’s younger players. It will be interesting to see what Hart and Watford do for an encore as a knee injury will keep Simons out for the time being. The Hawks are 27th in Defensive Rating and nearly blew a big lead against Indiana last night.
Prediction
This would be a fairer fight if the Trail Blazers had Simons and Nurkic. Atlanta’s last seven games have been decided by single digits, but I am going to trust Young at home to get his teammates more involved and get a comfortable win over a Portland team lacking in talent and experience. Take the home team for your Monday night NBA picks.
NBA Pick: Hawks -12.5 (-110) at Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.