Portland Trail Blazers vs New Orleans Pelicans
NBA: 9:00 PM EST
April 19, 2018
The Pelicans shocked the Moda Center crowd on Tuesday night by storming into Portland and winning 111-102 to take a 2-0 lead in their first round series. New Orleans has been impressive on both sides of the ball to this point. Anthony Davis turned in another sparkling performance, with 22 points and 13 boards. Rajon Rondo was efficient running the point for the Pels, with 10 more assists to complement his 17 from Game 1, and a pivotal three-pointer late in the game to finish with an unprecedented 16 points as well.
However, perhaps the most integral piece was the standout play of guard Jrue Holiday, who set a career playoff high with 33 points.
Not to go unmentioned must be the defense of Holiday, who for the second straight game, bottled up the Blazers’ most viable offensive threat, opposing PG Damian Lillard.
Dame is averaging a paltry 12.0 ppg in the series thus far, due in no small part to the impressive defensive efforts of Jrue Holiday. New Orleans hasn’t won a playoff game in front of their home crowd since the Chris Paul era, and with an entirely new roster since those days, they’ll likely come out with high energy looking to take a 3-0 stranglehold on this series.
Unless Damian Lillard can round into form and put up a superstar performance, I like the Pels.
Our Free Betting Pick: New Orleans Pelicans -3
