Could the Portland Trail Blazers complete a strong finish to the regular season and earn the No. 8 seed in the West ahead of the play-in tournament?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s win over the Los Angeles Clippers gave the Blazers the inside track to the No. 8 spot, as they only need to beat the Sacramento Kings on Sunday to clinch the spot. Getting the No. 8 seed would give Portland two chances to win one playoff game to finish in the No. 7 or No. 8 spot in the standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Kings are coming off a win against the Golden State Warriors \u2013 a bad sign for their tanking efforts this season. Sacramento is 22-59 and is now ahead of the Utah Jazz in the western Conference standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portland is 10-5 in its last 15 games, posting the seventh-best net rating in the NBA during that stretch. It\u2019s favored to close out the season strong on April 12, but should we bet on it?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at the betting odds, a player prop to consider and my prediction for this Western Conference clash.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kings vs. Trail Blazers Odds, Spread and Total<\/p>\n
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a><\/p>\n Spread<\/p>\n Kings +16.5 (-110)Blazers -16.5 (-110)<\/p>\n Moneyline<\/p>\n Kings: +850Blazers: -1450<\/p>\n Total<\/p>\n 227.5 (Over -112\/Under -108)Kings vs. Trail Blazers How to WatchDate: Sunday, April 12Time: 8:30 p.m. ESTVenue: Moda CenterHow to Watch (TV): BlazerVision, NBC Sports CaliforniaKings record: 22-59Blazers record: 41-40Kings vs. Trail Blazers Injury ReportsKings Injury ReportRussell Westbrook \u2013 outIsaiah Stevens \u2013 outDomantas Sabonis \u2013 outZach LaVine \u2013 outKeegan Murray \u2013 outMalik Monk \u2013 outDe\u2019Andre Hunter \u2013 outDrew Eubanks \u2013 outDeMar DeRozan \u2013 outBlazers Injury ReportJerami Grant \u2013 outDamian Lillard \u2013 outVit Krejci \u2013 questionableMatisse Thybulle \u2013 probableKings vs. Trail Blazers Best NBA Prop BetsBlazers Best NBA Prop BetDonovan Clingan 12+ Rebounds (-146)<\/p>\n The Kings have not been a great rebounding team this season with Domantas Sabonis (knee) out for the season, ranking 25th in the league in rebound percentage.<\/p>\n Donovan Clingan has been one of the best second-year players in the league, averaging 11.6 rebounds per game while turning into a cornerstone on this Portland team. In his last two games against the Kings, Clingan has 17 and 14 rebounds, giving him a pretty solid floor when it comes to this prop.<\/p>\n Since the All-Star break, Clingan is averaging 11.9 rebounds across 24 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kings vs. Trail Blazers Prediction and Pick<\/p>\n The Kings \u2013 despite being way out of playoff contention \u2013 have actually won four of their last six games, hurting their chances of landing a top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, I don\u2019t love the idea of laying 16.5 points with the Blazers, even though they can lock up the No. 8 seed with a win.\u00a0<\/p>\n Portland and Sacramento have both hit the OVER in the majority of their games, playing two games this season that finished with 227 or more points. The Kings are down a ton of rotational pieces, but that hasn\u2019t stopped them from knocking off Golden State, Toronto and New Orleans in recent games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though the Portland offense isn\u2019t one of the best in the league, the team does rank ninth in pace, which can lead to some higher-scoring games. I\u2019ll take the OVER with the Blazers facing a bottom-10 defense on April 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pick: OVER 227.5 (-112 at DraftKings)<\/a><\/p>\n Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n Find Peter Dewey’s\u00a0NBA betting record here<\/a>\u00a0(futures included). You can also follow my daily plays on \u00a0BetStamp here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Claim the latest\u00a0DraftKings promo code<\/a>\u00a0offer today. Sign up and get\u00a0$300 in bonus bets instantly when you make your first $5 bet<\/a>\u00a0and that bet wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could the Portland Trail Blazers complete a strong finish to the regular season and earn the No. 8…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-602231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}