NBA Picks: San Antonio Spurs vs New Orleans Pelicans (1/20/20)

This game is set to tipoff at 9:30pm et at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisnana. The Pelicans are currently a -3.5 point sportsbook favorite with the over/under 236 total points. The betting public has 58% of their money on New Orleans as the home favorite. After missing the first half of this season with a knee injury, the Pelicans No.1 draft pick, Zion Williams is finally set to make his debut in this matchup.

The Spurs come into this game 19-23 overall and 7-13 on the road this season. On Monday, they coughed up a 20-point lead as both the offense and defense simultaneously suffered a collapse, but they managed to still get the close 120-118 win against the Suns. Derrick White scored a season-high 25 points and Forbes added 24, all on 3s. LaMarcus Aldridge scored 19 and DeMar DeRozan added 18 points. They are expected to be back at full strength after listing reserve forward Rudy Gay as probable on Tuesday’s injury report. He missed the last three games due to an illness. The veteran is averaging 10.7 points and 5.8 rebounds. Offensively San Antonio is ranked 8th in the league scoring an average of 113.7 points per game, but defensively they give up 114.7 points per game.
San Antonio is 7-2 against the spread in their last 9 games on the road and the total has gone over in 11 of the Spurs last 16 games.

New Orleans come into this game winning 11 of their last 16 games to improve their record to 17-27 overall, giving them the No.12 seed in the western conference. All eyeballs will be on Zion, but expect to see him in short bursts and getting around 15-20 total minutes.  He should bring some big momentum for this game and they should come out the gates outscoring the Spurs. They are currently ranked fourth at home offensively, putting up 114.4 points per game, but ranked last in the league giving up 117.6 points on defense.

New Orleans is 8-1 against the spread in their last 9 games and the total has gone over in 10 of the Pelicans last 11 games.

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