In the opening game of their first-round NBA Playoffs series, the New Orleans Pelicans held off the Portland Trail Blazers 97-95. The Pelicans covered the spread as 5.5-point underdogs and paid money-line bettors +190. The game was well under the total of 216.
With the win, the Pelicans take a 1-0 lead in the series and became the first road team, and first underdog, to win in this year’s NBA Playoffs. Game 2 is Tuesday night, and odds will be released soon by BetSDI Sportsbook.
Holding onto a big lead
The Pelicans took the lead for good with a 16-4 run to end the first half with a 45-36 lead. New Orleans stretched the lead to as many as 19 points in the third quarter and still led by 13 points at 88-75 with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
But the Blazers wouldn’t go away and used a 17-5 run to close within 93-92 with 59.9 seconds left on a C.J. McCollum 3-pointer.
Portland’s Damian Lillard missed a shot for the lead with 15 seconds remaining, and New Orleans’ Jrue Holiday had a key block in the closing seconds. On the other end of the floor, Pelicans star Anthony Davis hit four free throws in as many tries to seal the victory. New Orleans led by five points until McCollum drained a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Big Game Brow
Davis, whose huge second half of the regular season made him a late MVP candidate, was the star of the night with 35 points and 14 rebounds on 14-of-26 shooting. Holidayscored 21 points for New Orleans, Nikola Mirotic added 16 points and 11 rebounds and Rajon Rondo made 17 assists.
For Portland, McCollum had 19 points and Lillard 18, but the normally reliable guards combined to shoot just 13 of 41, including 1 of 15 in the first half. Evan Turner added 13 points and Jusuf Norkic had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Looking ahead
The Pelicans entered the series as +10000 longshots to win the NBA title, and Portland was not much shorter at +4000. The Trail Blazers were slight favorites to win the series but have now lost home-court advantage. They will try to salvage an opening split in Portland before the teams head to the Big Easy for Game 3 on Thursday night.
