NBA: New Orleans Pelicans vs. San Antonio Spurs Preview, Odds, Prediction

The direct battle for the last spot that leads to the Western Conference play-in tournament takes place in San Antonio, where Spurs host the New Orleans Pelicans. The hosts are slightly behind the franchise from Louisiana, and they want to change that. The Spurs’ fans would be more or less satisfied with the participation in the play-in tournament, after a mild year in which the team didn’t have some big ambitions overall. Meanwhile, that can’t be said for the Pelicans, who were aiming a direct playoff spot, but Zion’s injury and several other factors disrupted that.

Preview

New Orleans Pelicans (28-41, +130) entered a crisis at the worst possible moment. Right now, they have five losses in the last six matches, and with the season on the line, this is a terrible situation. To make it even worse, the Pels played the most recent four in Louisiana.

After beating the Houston Rockets, New Orleans lost to the Phoenix Suns, 131-115, quite routinely, not being able to follow the Suns’ pace throughout the event. They were constantly falling behind, and there was no way for them to surprise the league leaders.

Herbert Jones was the top scorer for the Pelicans, having 22 points, while CJ McCollum added 21 and had nine assists. Jonas Valanciunas continued to rack up double-doubles with having 17 buckets and 12 boards. Jaxson Hayes scored 16, and it seems that these two guys can play together very well.

San Antonio Spurs (27-43, -155) have been inconsistent, but looking at the bigger picture, they are losing much more than winning. Yes, over the past six games, the record is even, three wins and three losses, but ,they had four defeats in a row prior to that.

In the latest event, the Spurs were better than the OKC Thunder, beating them 122-120. Dejuonte Murray had 26 points, the team-high, and besides that, recorded 12 assists and nine boards. Keldon Johnson scored 22, with six boards and dimes, while Loonie Walker IV scored 20 off the bench. These three guys dropped 13 threes of the Spurs’ 19.

San Antonio forced the rivals to commit 19 turnovers, which was the difference-maker. Overall, the Thunder was better in most of the statistical categories than the Spurs.

Head to Head Games

This will be the third game between these two sides in the 2021/22 season. Spurs were better in the previous two, with them triumphing at home, 112-97 and in Big Easy, 124-114. In both events, they looked confident and didn’t had too much problems in restraining the rivals.

Prediction

The Spurs and the Pelicans are two teams that like to play open and offensive basketball. Unlike the older generations in San Antonio, this one doesn’t have any preferences for playing defense. That’s why we often see them allowing 140 points, or some individual scoring 40, 50, or 60 points, like Karl Anthony-Towns did recently. As for the Pelicans, they were always an offense-first team, regardless of the team on the floor. The current line for the total points is set at 235, and our pick here would be Over, precisely because of the mentality of play of both units. The odds here are -110.

Pick: Over 235 -110