The New Orleans Pelicans and the San Antonio Spurs collide at the AT&T Center on Friday night.
The New Orleans Pelicans have been in a slump as they’ve lost five of their last six games overall and they will be hoping to bounce back after getting blown out by the Suns in a 131-115 loss on Tuesday. Herbert Jones led the team with 22 points, CJ McCollum added 21 points with nine assists, Jonas Valanciunas scored 17 points with 12 rebounds while Jaxson Hayes chipped in with 16 points. As a team, the Pelicans shot 50 percent from the field and 12 of 34 from the 3-point line as they got off to a quick start and led by nine points early, but it didn’t last at all as the Suns methodically outpaced them the rest of way to make it look easy. Devonte’ Graham had a rough shooting night as he scored just 10 points on three of 11 shooting and the Pelicans committed a total of 17 turnovers compared to the Suns who committed just eight.
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs have been below their best as they’ve lost seven of their last 10 games overall, but they will be eager to build some momentum after outlasting the Thunder in a 122-120 home win on Wednesday. Dejounte Murray led the team with 26 points, nine rebounds, 12 assists and four steals, Keldon Johnson added 22 points with six assists, Lonnie Walker scored 20 points off the bench while Josh Richardson chipped in with 17 points. As a team, the Spurs shot just 43 percent from the field and 19 of 41 from the 3-point line as they squandered an early 16-point deficit to trail by one point with just 4.8 seconds left on the clock, before Walker saved the day with the game-winning shot with just 1.8 seconds remaining.
Looking at the betting trends, the Pelicans are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 road games, 7-3-1 ATS in their last 11 games against a team with a losing record and 1-5 ATS in their last six games overall. The Spurs are 1-4 ATS in their last five home games, 1-4 ATS in their last five games against a team with a losing record and 1-4 ATS in their last five games overall.
Head to head, the under is 5-1 in the last six meetings overall, the Pelicans are 0-7 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and the Pelicans are 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings in San Antonio.
The Pelicans will be missing a list of players and they can add Jose Alverado and Devonte’ Graham to the list as they’re both listed as questionable, while the Spurs are still missing Romeo Langford, Doug McDermott and Keita Bates-Diop. I’d be tempted to take the Pelicans if we were getting more points here, but with the line so short, I’m sticking with the Spurs to get the job done at home.