If the Denver Nuggets hope to avoid a first round upset at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers, they’ll need to play a whole lot better than they did in Game 4. The teams are square at two wins apiece entering their pivotal Game 5 matchup Tuesday night at Ball Arena in Denver. The Nuggets are still smarting from a 20-point loss in Portland on Saturday afternoon that had head coach Michael Malone suggesting his team played “awful” and looked “soft”.

Trail Blazers vs. Nuggets NBA Playoff Odds

The Nuggets are favoured by the slimmest of margins on the NBA odds. The series will now shift back to Colorado, where these teams have split the first two meetings. The Blazers have been a terrific cover option of late, going 5-2 against the spread in their previous seven games. They’ve also dominated against the spread in the head-to-head series’, with six covers in the past eight meetings. Denver, on the other hand, has just six covers in 18 encounters with Western Conference foes.

The total for Tuesday’s fifth game is set at 226, with a whopping 88 per cent of the Sports Interaction betting public siding with the Over. Three of the first four games in this series have finished above the number, extending the teams’ O/U run to 4-1 in five meetings since mid-May. Both sides have favoured the Over during their respective seasons, with the Blazers coming in at 39-36-1 for the 2020-21 campaign and the Nuggets at 42-33-1.

Portland Trail Blazers

Imagine only getting 10 points from your star player and still winning with ease. That’s how the Trail Blazers rolled en route to a 115-95 victory in Game 4, cruising to the one-sided win even though Damian Lillard shot 1-of-10 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc to barely reach double digits. Lillard did, however, rack up 10 assists and eight rebounds and is still averaging an incredible 30.8 points and 9.5 assists per night through the first four games.

Denver Nuggets

Malone’s choice words for his starting lineup were well-earned, as the Nuggets’ big five had one of their worst outings of the season. Nikola Jokic led the way with just 16 points, as he and the rest of the starters combined to shoot 15-of-43 from the field (and 6-of-19 from beyond the arc). The most shocking stat line of all belonged to Michael Porter Jr., who averaged 19.3 points over the first three games but had three points on just three shot attempts in Game 4.

NBA Playoff Prediction: Who Will Win Trail Blazers vs. Nuggets?

TRAIL BLAZERS

Away

116

NUGGETS

Home

113

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Predictions

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