NBA on TNT picks: Blazers vs. Pacers, Lakers vs. Warriors

The NBA returns to TNT on Thursday night with a pair of enticing games. The fun begins at 8 p.m. ET, with a Trail Blazers-Pacers showdown in Indianapolis, and continues at 10:30 p.m. ET with a West Coast shootout between the Lakers and Warriors in San Francisco. We have odds and picks for both matchups below.

Damian Lillard had one of his finest games of the season during Portland’s first meeting with Indiana on Jan. 26. The five-time All-Star erupted for 50 points on 14-of-23 shooting, and the Blazers came away with a convincing 139-129 win. That’s the good news for Rip City. The bad news is that Lillard will not be available tonight as he nurses a groin injury.

Are you ready for the really bad news? Portland is just 1-4 this season when Lillard sits. Their lone win came against the decimated Detroit Pistons, who have been reduced to force-feeding minutes to human stick insect Thon Maker and Brevin "I Can't Believe He's Still in the NBA" Knight.

Portland will have its hands full this evening against a Pacers squad which is sixth in the fiercely competitive Eastern Conference and is fresh off a 119-80 shellacking of the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.

Indiana could be without Victor Oladipo, who will be a game time decision, but unlike Portland, they have the depth necessary to compensate for his absence. The Pacers have received huge contributions from first time All-Star Domantas Sabonis, who is averaging 18.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, and new addition T.J. Warren, who is leading the team in scoring at 18.5 points per contest and has dropped 25 points or more 13 times this season.

If Oladipo suits up, the Pacers should cover the 9.5 point spread. If he doesn’t, Portland will keep this game uncomfortably close, before blowing it in the fourth.

NBA free pick: Pacers moneyline

The suits at TNT likely had visions of LeBron James going toe-to-toe with Steph Curry when they scheduled this matchup in October. Instead they’ll get the Lakers taking on a motley crew most NBA fans couldn’t pick out of a police lineup.

Minus Curry and fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson, the Warriors have had to lean on a JV team full of journeymen and reclamation projects this season. The result has been a league-worst 12-46 record and some of the most unwatchable basketball this side of Cleveland. Golden State has lost seven games in a row and ranks dead last in offensive rating, net rating, and plus/minus.

It’s been an entirely different story 380 miles to the south, where Los Angeles has won six straight and has the best record in the Western Conference. Unlike the Warriors, the Lakers have been remarkably healthy this season. LeBron James has played in 54 of L.A.’s first 56 games and is leading the league in assists for the first time in his 17-year career. Fellow All-Star Anthony Davis has missed just seven games and has the shortest odds to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. The two stars have had the Lakers humming at both ends of the court all season.

The question tonight isn’t whether or not the Lakers will win. The question is by how much? L.A. has beaten Golden State by an average of 15.5 points during their first two meetings of the season, and I’m willing to wager they'll cover the spread tonight. 

NBA free pick: Lakers moneyline and -10 spread

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