Will the Belgian step up to the plate again?
A high-profile matchup is set for tonight in the Western Conference as the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Wettbasis is offering a pick for the game at the Moda Center. The visiting team is currently severely depleted. OKC’s injury list includes two top players: center Chet Holmgren and guard Jalen Williams.
Added to that are absences from second-string players like Topic and Wallace. Despite the personnel shortages, however, Oklahoma is holding its own and sits in third place in the West with eight wins and two losses.
Recently, however, their form has dipped: they suffered losses against both the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers. Admittedly, these are two top teams in the West, but the same assessment applies to their upcoming opponent despite its own personnel issues. One reason why OKC is doing well despite the many absences is Belgian player Ajay Mitchell.
Averaging 22.5 points in November, he’s been particularly effective at stepping up to fill the scoring void left by his injured teammates. Given his consistent form, we’re predicting that the 24-year-old will score more than 19.5 points in the game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In contrast, Scott Henderson is once again struggling for the home team this season. The 22-year-old guard has a poor field goal percentage of just 32.9 percent this season—about seven percent below his career average.
His three-pointers, in particular, aren’t falling: Only 16.7 percent of his shots from downtown are finding the net. Given this, we believe the odds on Henderson scoring fewer than 10.5 points in the matchup between Portland and Oklahoma could also be worth considering. It’s a threshold he hasn’t surpassed in two-thirds of his nine games this season.
Portland Trail Blazers – Oklahoma City Thunder Head-to-Head Record
The teams last faced each other at the start of this year, and OKC won very convincingly, 124–95, on their home court. Thanks to that victory, the visitors have won the last three meetings. Moreover, they enjoy playing at the Moda Center.
Only one of the past ten games in Portland didn’t end in a win for OKC! In each of those games, they scored at least 115 points. For the upcoming Portland Trail Blazers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder matchup, the odds also favor the visitors, at least moderately.
Portland Trail Blazers – Oklahoma City Thunder Pick
Ajay Mitchell averaged an impressive 13.6 points per game in the regular season before the playoffs last season. He’s stepped up his game even further this season.
The player wearing number 25 for OKC is currently averaging 18.9 points per game and has even averaged 22.5 points this month. The Belgian is also benefiting from Oklahoma’s severely depleted roster, which has led to an increase in his playing time.
As a result, he’s averaging 27.3 minutes on the court this season—just under two minutes more than last season’s 25.8 minutes (regular season). We expect another strong performance from the shooting guard and see sufficient value in the betting odds for Mitchell to score more than 19.5 points in the game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Although he recently failed to score 20 or more points, this was primarily because OKC’s victory over Washington was already secured early in the game. Ajay was therefore given a breather and played only 22 minutes.
