The Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans do battle at the Smoothie King Center on Saturday night.
The Los Angeles Lakers have been in decent shape as they’ve won five of their last eight games overall and they will be gunning for a third straight victory after outlasting the Pacers in a 112-111 road win on Thursday. Anthony Davis led the team with 31 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks, LeBron James added 26 points with seven rebounds and seven assists while Dennis Schroder chipped in with 12 points and five assists. As a team, the Lakers shot 45 percent from the field and six of 22 from the 3-point line as they allowed the Pacers to get off to a quick start and trailed in this one by as many as 15 points before they held the Pacers to just 15 points in the fourth quarter to escape with the comeback victory.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Pelicans have been mired in their worst slump of the season as they are now hoping to put a halt to their current 10-game losing streak after falling short to the Mavericks in a 111-106 loss on Thursday. Brandon Ingram led the team with 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, CJ McCollum added 19 points with eight assists while Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 16 points and 13 rebounds. As a team, the Pelicans shot 50 percent from the field and five of 20 from the 3-point line as they got off to a terrible start and were always fighting an uphill battle after allowing the Mavericks to pour in 70 points in the first half.
Looking at the betting trends, the Lakers are 16-5 ATS in their last 21 games against a team with a losing record and 4-10 ATS in their last 14 road games against a team with a winning home record. The Pelicans are 0-5 ATS in their last five games following a loss, 1-4 ATS in their last five home games and 0-5 ATS in their last five games overall.
Head to head, the under is 4-1 in the last five meetings overall and the Lakers are 3-7 ATS in the last 10 meetings in New Orleans.
The Lakers are shorthanded again as Austin Reaves is still out, while LeBron James is considered questionable. The Pelicans are still missing Zion Williamson and they just haven’t been able to get anything going as they’ve now lost 10 in a row. The Pelicans have little to play for, but they would love to play spoiler in this spot, but I just don’t see that happening against this Lakers team who are coming off one of their best comeback wins of the season. Give me the Lakers to take care of business on the road in this spot.