The Portland Trail Blazers won on their opponent's home floor to take control of their first-round playoff series. Now, the Oklahoma City Thunder will have to do the same in order to keep their season alive. The clubs meet on Tuesday night in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at the Moda Center. Tipoff is at 10:30 p.m. ET. The Trail Blazers have a commanding 3-1 lead after their 111-98 Game 4 win in Oklahoma City and can clinch their first postseason series win in three years with a victory. The Thunder won twice in Portland during the regular season, however, and will have to do so again in order to force a Game 6. Portland is a four-point favorite, up from an open of 3.5. The over-under for total points scored has climbed to 221 in the latest Thunder vs. Blazers odds after opening at 219. Before you make any Trail Blazers vs. Thunder picks, listen to what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say.
The model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, is crushing its NBA picks. It entered Week 28 of the 2018-19 NBA season with a sterling record on its top-rated plays, returning more than $3,500 in profit to anybody following them. And it has been particularly red-hot on its A-rated NBA money-line picks, entering Week 28 on a strong 84-57 run. Anybody who has followed it is way up.
Now, the model has dialed in on Game 5 of Blazers vs. Thunder in the 2019 NBA Playoffs from every angle, crunched the numbers and generated a very strong point-spread pick that hits over 60 percent of the time. That selection is available at SportsLine.
The model knows that so far this series, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have lived up to their billing as one of the NBA's top backcourts. After a slow start, Lillard came alive with 15 points in the third quarter of Game 4 to give the Blazers a working margin. McCollum took over from there, drilling a series of clutch shots in the fourth quarter to help fend off comeback attempts by the Thunder. Lillard and McCollum combined to score 51 points.
The Blazers also have been sound defensively too. They have held Oklahoma City to fewer than 100 points in each of their three wins in the series. They limited the Thunder to 37.5 percent field-goal shooting in Game 4 and clamped down on Russell Westbrook, particularly in the second half. Westbrook scored just one point and missed all seven of his field goals in the final two quarters. He finished 5-of-21 from the field and is shooting 30.4 percent for the series.
Still, Portland is far from a sure thing to cover the Blazers vs. Thunder spread against an OKC team that won all four regular-season matchups, including a pair of wins in Portland.
Oklahoma City won Game 3 on Friday and has been competitive into the second half in each of the three losses. But the Thunder's inability to generate perimeter scoring has been a liability throughout the series. However, they have rediscovered their touch, hitting 25 three-pointers in the last two games, including 15 in their Game 3 victory.
Paul George helped pick up the slack for a struggling Westbrook in Game 4 and finished with a game-high 32 points. He also had 10 rebounds and six assists. Oklahoma City also received need production from its reserves, who contributed 32 points. Dennis Schroder led the way with 17 points and three rebounds.
Who wins Game 5 of Thunder vs. Blazers? And which side of the spread hits in well over 60 percent of simulations? Visit SportsLine now to find out which side of the Thunder vs. Blazers spread you should be all over Tuesday, all from the model that's up more than $3,500 on NBA picks this season.
