NBA Picks: The New Orleans Pelicans face the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday with the home team favored. The Clippers had won five in a row before Wednesday’s home game against Orlando so they should come into this game on a six-game winning streak. Let’s look at the match-up and NBA picks.
Clippers Offense Finally Clicking
Los Angeles is up to fifth in the league in points per game at 105 points per contest. The team has figured out a good starting lineup of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, Matt Barnes and DeAndre Jordan. They have one of the best sixth men in the game in Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes has been giving them good minutes. The offense has been moving the ball really well which has set up shots for sharpshooter J.J. Redick.
“When J.J. is getting shots, it means we are getting great ball movement,” coach Doc Rivers said. “J.J.’s a great shooter and he hasn’t forgotten how to shoot. Eventually the ball is going to go in. And now it’s finally starting to go in for him.”
Redick had made a three-pointer in 23 straight games going into Wednesday’s game vs. the Magic.
Davis Dominating for Pelicans
New Orleans has a great player in Anthony Davis but not much around him. Davis leads the team in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, steals and blocks. He does everything for this team but the Pelicans don’t have enough talent around him. The team was 7-8 after 15 games this season. They were averaging about 100 points per game while allowing 99 per contest. They went over the total in nine of their 15 games.
Game Notes
The Clippers have actually been better on the road vs. the spread than they have at home. They were just 2-6 against the NBA betting number in their first eight home games this season. They went over four times and under four times in the eight games. This series has been dominated by the Clippers who have won eight of the last 10. The Pelicans did win 98-96 at home last season to break a six-game losing streak in the series. Four of the last five meetings have gone under the total. The Clippers have won six of the last seven at home in this series and they are 5-2 ATS in those games. The last three in L.A. have gone under the total.
NBA Picks
We’ll look for the Pelicans and Clippers to go Under the Total.