Only 3 games in the NBA on Thursday night and the 1st one is going to be between Portland Trail Blazers and Brooklyn Nets. Portland has played very well at the start of the season and they are the best team in the Western Conference right now with 10 wins and 4 losses. Brooklyn has been a disappointment this season and with 6 wins and 9 losses, they are only in 10th position in the Eastern Conference.

Nobody talked about the Trail Blazers as a real contender but here they are. The team has won the last 4 games out of 5. The team was without Damian Lillard for a while but it didn't stop the team. One of the biggest Portland strengths is depth. Not only Lillard can score (27.9 points per game) but also Anfernee Simons (22.3) and Jerami Grant (21.3). We can't forget about Jusuf Nurkic and Josh Hart who are doing the little things on the court.

The synonym for Brooklyn Nets could be drama. Not only because of Kyrie Irving's situation and Steve Nash's firing but also because of Kevin Durant's recent comments as he said "what are you expecting from our starting lineup?" These aren't the best words to say about your teammates and it will be interesting to see how they will respond. The Nets have lost the last 2 games and they were demolished by the Kings in the last one as they gave up 153 points! This game will be the last in this round trip as they have been out of home for almost a week.

Let's take a look at advanced stats. Portland is the 12th best on offense (112.3) and 7th best on defense (109.9) with a net rating of 2.3 (10th best). Brooklyn is the 16th-best team on offense (112.0) and only 21st on defense (112.7) with a net rating of -0.7 (19th best). A different story is in the last 5 games where the Blazers have a net rating of 5.3 (7th best) but the Nets have -1.0 (14th best). The Blazers rank third in three-point field goal percentage, a weak spot for the Nets, who rank 28th in three-point field goal defense.

Portland has covered the spread in four of its last five games and has been outstanding on the defensive end of the court. Brooklyn does not have enough firepower to keep pace with the top teams in the league right now, and they have gone 1-6 in their last seven games against Western Conference teams. I'm confident that Portland will continue to collect victories.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

周四晚上NBA只有三场比赛，第一场是波特兰开拓者和布鲁克林篮网队之间的比赛。开拓者在赛季初踢得非常好，现在他们是西部最好的球队，10胜4负。布鲁克林本赛季的表现令人失望，6胜9负，他们只排在东部第10位。

没有人说开拓者是一个真正的竞争者，但他们是这样的。这支球队在最近的5场比赛中赢了4场。球队有一段时间没有达米安·利拉德，但这并没有阻止球队的发展。波特兰最大的优势之一就是深度。不仅是利拉德(场均27.9分)，安菲尼·西蒙斯(场均22.3分)和杰拉米·格兰特(场均21.3分)也是如此。我们不能忘记努尔基奇和哈特，他们在球场上做着小事。

布鲁克林篮网队的同义词可能是戏剧。不仅是因为欧文的情况和纳什的被解雇，还因为凯文·杜兰特最近的评论，他说:“你对我们的首发阵容有什么期待?”这并不是对你的队友最好的评价，看看他们的反应会很有趣。篮网在过去的两场比赛中都输了，在最后一场比赛中，他们被国王队彻底摧毁了，因为他们丢掉了153分!这场比赛将是他们客场的最后一场比赛，因为他们已经离家将近一周了。

让我们来看看高级数据。开拓者的进攻得分排在第12位(112.3)，防守得分排在第7位(109.9)，净得分为2.3(第10)。布鲁克林在进攻端排名第16(112.0)，防守端排名第21(112.7)，净得分为-0.7(第19)。一个不同的故事是在最近的5场比赛中，开拓者的净收视率是5.3(排名第七)，而篮网的净收视率是-1.0(排名第14)。开拓者的三分命中率排名第三，这是篮网的软肋，篮网的三分命中率排名第28。

开拓者在过去的五场比赛中有四场都在防守端取得了优异的表现。布鲁克林现在没有足够的火力跟上联盟顶级球队的步伐，他们在最近7场对阵西部球队的比赛中取得了1胜6负的成绩。我有信心波特兰会继续取得胜利。