New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs betting tips and predictions for Wednesday’s NBA play-in game on ESPN. Someone’s season is about to end tonight as the New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs meet up in the Western Conference play-in game. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans actually lost the regular season series 1-3 against the Spurs, so it’ll be a tough match-up for them tonight as they try and wrap up the 9th seed. This team has struggled with injuries quite a lot during the regular season, so I won’t hold that result too much against them here.
When at full strength this team has been really solid all season long and if it wasn’t for their 1-12 SU start to the season they would have finished a lot higher. As for favourites, they’ve gone 18-6 SU in 24 games played, tonight they enter the game as 5.5 point favourites to win.
The trio of Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum and Jonas Valanciunas should be ready here. If this team somehow makes it into the playoffs, there are rumours circulating that we might even get to see Zion Williamson back in some capacity which should be a huge boost to their ambitions.
San Antonio Spurs
It wasn’t the best of the season for San Antonio as they finished 14 games under .500, but in today’s NBA you can still make the playoffs even if you’re not really good. This team ended the season covering the spread in 6 of their last 7 games, plus their best player Dejounte Murray is finally fully healthy which should be a big deal.
In head-to-head meetings they’ve owned the Pelicans with 8 wins in the last 10 games, however, most of those games were prior to CJ McCollum arriving in New Orleans. Spurs have also covered 7 straight on the road against New Orleans, winning both meetings at the Smoothie King Center this season. There’s no doubt their players will be extra motivated here as coach Gregg Popovich might be coaching the final game of his illustrious career.
It’s a tough match-up to predict as the two teams are evenly matched, so I think it could go down the wire. The last time they played the Spurs won by 3 points, so I’m leaning towards backing them to cover here. That doesn’t mean the Pelican still can’t win by a few points, but for more security let’s back the road team to cover here.
New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Predictions & Odds
This being the play-in tournament and the season is on the line for both sides, defences will tighten up a bit as we saw in the first 2 play-in games last night, with both of them going under the total. The total has gone under in 12 of 18 games for San Antonio overall and in 12 of 18 vs Western Conference opponents. New Orleans also loves going under the total, that has happened in 7 of their last 10 vs Western Conference teams and in 7 of their last 8 against the Spurs.
These teams have averaged just 218.8 points per game in the last 10 meetings and the O/U record was 2-8 during that stretch. The Spurs rank 4th in pace averaging 102.4 possessions per game, however, they’ve shown a number of times this season they are able to slow things down when needed. Against a Pelicans team that’s only 21st in a pace that might be necessary. With these 2 teams ranked 17th and 20th in offensive efficiency, I just cannot justify backing the over in this game. Let’s back the under.
