Trail Blazers vs Celtics 8/2/20 - NBA Picks & Predictions

On Sunday, the Portland Trail Blazers will play the Boston Celtics in the second of eight seeding games for both. Portland defeated Memphis 140-135 in overtime in its first game returning back from the covid-19 Hiatus. CJ McCollum led the Trail Blazers with 33 points and teamed up with backcourt mate Damian Lillard to score 11 of the Trailblazers 16 points during the extra period. Yusuf Nurkic scored 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds for Portland.

Damian Lillard is leading Portland in scoring and assists with averages of 28.9 points and 7.8 assists per game. The fourth leading scorer and leading rebounder is Hassan Whiteside with averages of 16.1 points and 14.1 rebounds per game. CJ McCollum is the second leading scorer for the Trailblazers with an average of 22.7 points per game.

Boston returned to action on Friday night with a 119-112 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Celtics guard Marcus Smart drew what the Celtics thought was a charging foul against Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo but the call was overturned leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the Celtics players and coaches. Smart led the Celtics in scoring with 23 points while Jaylen Brown chipped in with 22.

Jayson Tatum is the leading scorer for Boston with an average of 23.2 points per game, while Enes Kanter is the leading rebounder with an average of 7.6 per game and Kemba Walker is the leader in assists with an average of 4.9 per game. Jaylen Brown and Walker are both averaging over 20 points per game giving Boston three players with averages of 20 points or more per game.