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

The San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Pelicans meet on Thursday night at the Smoothie Kings Center in Louisiana. The Spurs are giving some signs of life lately, winning three of the past five events, while the Pelicans chase the top spot in the West, but are in crisis. Zion and the crew are without a victory for quite some time, and doubters about their quality have become louder and louder. The hosts are massive favorites, though, that doesn’t have to mean anything, especially following their latest events.

Preview

San Antonio Spurs (10-20, TBA) posted a win over the Rockets in the last game. It was a triumph on the road, in Houston, 124-105, and that was the third win for Gregg Popovich’s crew in the previous five contests. It was a good game for the Spurs, who controlled the situation on the court most of the time, bursting in the third quarter and outscoring the rivals, 32-14.

Guests from San Antonio had an excellent shooting percentage, 55.4%, with 17 threes in 34 attempts, while Houston made only 5 in 24. Also, fast break points were a huge plus for the Spurs, who had 26 of them, while the Rockets had six.

Vassell ended the night with 26 points, five threes, and seven of the Spurs’ players had double-digit point productivity. Dough McDermott added 16 off the bench, and Malaki Branham 14, also off the bench.

New Orleans Pelicans (18-13, TBA) have four losses in the row, three on the road, back-to-back in Utah against the Jazzers, one in Phoenix, and the most recent was at home. Milwaukee Bucks were better than the Pelicans, 128-119, reminding them that there is still lots of hard work ahead of them before becoming a title contender.

The Pels had a strong start, and even though Zion wasn’t involved in the opening few matches, they would hold on near the top of the conference. Zion is present now, but the franchise from the Big Easy is still experiencing injury troubles with Brandon Ingram out.

Jonas Valanciunas exploded against the Bucks with 37 points and 18 boards, seven hit threes, and CJ McCollum had 31 points with six downtown hits. Zion ended the night with only 18 buckets in 40 minutes. Apparently, Giannis was too big of a challenge for the former top pick.

Head to Head Games

This will be the second game of the season between these two units, and so far, the Pels have won in both of the previous contests which took place in Texas. In the first, the result was 129-110, and in the second, 117-99. As you can see, the Pelicans like playing against the Spurs’ defense.

Prediction

The combined margin of Pels’ wins in the previous two events was 37 points. The Spurs’ defense has no solution for New Orleans’ offense, not only because San Antonio, in general, plays terrible D, but also, due to very negative matchups that favor the Pelicans’ players. That’s why we predict another easy victory for Zion and the boys, presumably by at least a 10-point margin, the odds on this will be very good.

Pick: New Orleans Pelicans -10