The NBA season heats up with an in-season tournament matchup between the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns. Our NBA odds series continues with a Trail Blazers-Suns prediction and pick.

Simply put, this season has been a disaster for the Portland Trail Blazers. Although this was widely expected, Portland's season has been on another level of disappointment. Sunday's road loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder marked their seventh loss in a row. The 134-91 defeat was highlighted by the Thunder's 70 bench points. It was a bonus that Jerami Grant could provide some offense for the team with his 14 points, but nothing seemed to go right for this team on the night. In Portland's defense, injuries have deterred them from success, as many of their key players have gone down throughout the first couple weeks of the season. Looking to rebound, Portland's next stop on their road trip is in Phoenix in a group play match against the Suns.

After a slow start to the season, it appears that the Phoenix Suns are finally getting things together. Entering the game on a three-game winning streak, the Suns seem primed to make it a fourth in a row. Their most recent game was a close three-point win on the road against the Utah Jazz. In this contest, the Suns saw yet another incredible performance from Kevin Durant. On a season-high 46 minutes played for him, he had a near Triple-Double as he tallied 39 points, ten assists, and eight rebounds. He will be in line for another strong performance to lead his team to a win at home against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Here are the NBA odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

NBA Odds: Trail Blazers-Suns Odds

Portland Trail Blazers: +13 (-110)

Phoenix Suns: -13 (-110)

Over: 224 (-108)

Under: 224 (-112)

How to Watch Trail Blazers vs. Suns

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

TV: Portland- ROOT Sports Northwest  Phoenix- Bally Sports Arizona

Stream: fuboTV (Click for free trial)

Why The Trail Blazers Could Cover The Spread

So far this season, the Portland Trail Blazers have seriously lacked offensive production. However, what they have failed to do on offense, they have made up for on defense. The overwhelming intensity on this side of the ball felt by opponents has been brought through their active hands. The Trail Blazers rank sixth in the league in steals per game, with an average of 8.6. Aiding in this effort has been Deandre Ayton, who is currently averaging a career-high 1.5 steals per game. With the Phoenix Suns committing the sixth-highest turnovers per game in the league at 15.7, look for this matchup to play heavily into the hands of the Trail Blazers.

Adding to the Trail Blazers showing some serious heart and hustle over their opponents is their effort when it comes to offensive rebounding. Although he has received much criticism for how he ended his tenure in Phoenix, Ayton also leads Portland in this category. His 3.1 offensive rebounds per game have the Trail Blazers eighth in the league. Seeing as the Suns lack a dominant big outside of Jusuf Nurkic, Ayton will exploit this weakness of Phoenix in his revenge game.

Why The Suns Could Cover The Spread

While the Phoenix Suns have made headlines throughout the season due to their injury woes, it has not been like anything the Trail Blazers have experienced. Coming into this game, Portland has one of the most jam-packed injury reports in the league. Malcolm Brogdon, Anfernee Simons, Robert Williams III, Scoot Henderson, and Ish Wainright are slated to miss this game. All players are due to miss some lengthy time. It may hurt that Bradley Beal remains watching from the sidelines, but at least the Suns have enough of a healthy squad to maintain the significant edge in talent over Portland.

It also helps the case of the Suns that former league MVP Kevin Durant will be the best player on the floor and has been on an absolute tear recently. He is coming off a back-to-back against Utah, where he dropped 39 and 38 points on greater than 50.0% shooting from the field in both contests. In November, Durant is averaging 33.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game. Appearing as a lock for another All-NBA selection, Durant will almost certainly have his way against a depleted Portland team.

Final Trail Blazers-Suns Prediction & Pick

In what will surely be a heated battle between the third and fourth-place teams in Western Conference's Group A, this is a must-win if either team wants to advance. Although the Suns are coming into the game 1-4 against the spread in their last five games, I will be going with Phoenix in this one. While they may get a wild card performance from an unexpected player to make this a close one, Portland just does not have enough firepower to keep up. Even though the third star, Beal, will be sidelined for the next several weeks, expect Durant and Devin Booker to pick up the slack in a major way, especially in this game where there is a very steep difference between teams. I'll lay the points with the Phoenix Suns in this one.

Final Trail Blazers-Suns Prediction & Pick: Phoenix Suns -13 (-110)