The New Orleans Pelicans are certainly a team that can be called Jekyll and Hyde. They rack up the wins at home, but they are one of the worst road teams in the league. They have one of the league’s highest-scoring offenses but they also have one of the worst defenses. They will be facing the surging Golden State Warriors tonight but, unfortunately for Pelicans fans, it’s a road game. New Orleans has dropped seven of their last eight road games with their lone win coming at the expense of a terrible Cavaliers team. They are still managing to put up points on the road, but they are giving up much more.
So, we need to figure out if Anthony Davis has it in him to score 30 points? He leads his team with 28.9 points per game which is just over eight points more than Jrue Holiday, the team’s second-leading point producer. Davis is off to a pretty strong 2019. In the five games since the beginning of January, Davis has scored 34 or more points in three games while recording 30 points once. His weakest performance was a 20-point outing against Cleveland, but he can be excused for that one as he played under 30 minutes because the Pelicans were way ahead.
Related: NBA MVP Betting
On the season, Anthony Davis is averaging 28.9 points per game. He doesn’t make many three-point attempts but he is a strong free throw and field goal shooter. This will be the second time the Pelicans will face the Warriors this year. They met up in Golden State on Halloween with the Warriors prevailing to the tune of 131-121. The Pelicans have lost 11 of their last 12 games against the Warriors, but they have generally been high-scoring affairs with the Over prevailing in nine of the last 11 meetings.
In New Orleans’ lone meeting against Golden State this year, Davis was held to just 17 points but he was playing hurt. Despite the injury, Davis logged a whopping 41 minutes of playing time. We have a pretty good sample pool of games from last season in which Davis and his team faced off against the Warriors. He scored 35 points in their first meeting in New Orleans and then 30 more in the second meeting in Golden State. He missed the third meeting and then tallied 34 in Golden State during the final regular season game between the two.
Golden State knocked the Pelicans out of the playoffs in a series that went five games. Davis topped the 30-point mark in two of those games. So, it appears that Davis modestly elevates his game when he faces the Warriors. Seeing that he has been racking up the points in recent games and these two teams have a history of scoring in bunches, Davis is a good bet to eclipse the 30-point mark.
My Pick: Anthony Davis Over 30 Points
