The 5-5 Indiana Pacers will host another team with the same record on Tuesday evening. It’s the Davis-Cousins powered Pelicans team, who are looking to knock on the stage of relevancy. The Pacers have surprised a few already, but the season goes beyond first 10 games, so they’ll have to continue to beat the odds.
Pelicans at Pacers
Spread: New Orleans -1.5 (-105) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 216.5 points (-110)
There are no such things as ugly wins for Pelicans
For the second time this season, the New Orleans Pelicans won two games in a row. The victories against the Chicago Bulls and the Dallas Mavericks are nothing to brag about, but it’s surely going to raise a few spirits in the organization. The Pelicans are not playing impressive basketball. But the Pelicans do have two impressive players, and this will give them a fighting chance in most games.
Four of the five games came on the road, which is certainly nice, even with the easy schedule. In Chicago, the Pelicans won 96-90 after overtime in what was an ugly display of two bad offenses. New Orleans jumped up in front 9-2, but couldn’t find any shots to drop – they would soon give up the lead and the most of the game was played very close, with many lead changes and ties. It was not until the overtime that the Pelicans managed to make a good run, and that timely portion of inspiration has decided the outcome of the game. Stats wise, there’s not much positive to take from this game. The Pelicans shot a low percentage (40.2), with Cousins (6-of-20), Moore (1-of-7) and Holiday (5-of-15) main culprits. The outside shot was missed once again. They don’t have any marksman from beyond the three-point line: six of the 9 treys were hit by backups Darius Miller and Jameer Nelson. Of course, the Pelicans still managed to win as the Bulls are allergic to scoring (and this was also the case in Dallas the previous night). Their next few opponents are nothing like that, as the Pels conclude the road session with games against the Pacers and the Raptors.
Apart from the players who are yet to play this season, the Pelicans are healthy and should play with a full roster in Indy.
Place: Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Date/Time: Tuesday, November 7th, 2017. 7:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports New Orleans
The Pacers had it, then lost it
While you can’t complain much about any win, the losses can be ugly, and in different ways. One of the worst ways to lose is what the Indiana Pacers did on Sunday, building and then holding a double-digit lead until the fourth quarter of the game against the New York Knicks, only to be undone by a poor 17-36 last period of play.
The Indiana Pacers appeared to be cruising in the third, enjoying a 19-point lead that they’ve thoroughly deserved by putting together a more complete game. They shot very well from the outside (12-of-25), creating space for the shooters with excellent ball movement. However, they also showed much immaturity when Porzingis beast came alive and the arena started rumbling. The Pacers rushed shots, made crucial turnovers and missed threes in the clutch. They made a change to the starting lineup with Sabonis shifted to the bench and Myles Turner starting, but both played solid in what was close to a timeshare. Turner had 15 points and Sabonis had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Oladipo was off, with just 7-of-21 shooting and struggled to impose himself as the main weapon when it mattered the most. Instead, Darren Collison hit two big threes late in the game that slowed down Knicks momentum, but the Pacers couldn’t sustain incredible offensive outburst of Kristaps Porzingis in the last 15 minutes, who finished the game with 40 points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots.
Backup forward T.J. Leaf missed the game in NY, and is questionable to play in this game as well. The rest of the Pacers are good to go. Indiana is home for just one game before traveling to Detroit to play the next day. Saving energy for the latter game of this back-to-back set will not be a priority after two losses, mainly as the last one stung.
New Orleans Pelicans at Indiana Pacers Game Trends & Prediction
It can’t be any tighter than the previous two covers for the Pelicans. First, they’ve beaten the Mavericks by five as a 4.5-point jolly, and then they cashed in in Chicago with a one-point cover due to the extra period. Still, the Pelicans are now 6-4 against the spread. The under streak is more telling. The last four games stayed below the projected total points lines as the Pelicans wouldn’t score in triple digits in any of these. For the season, they are 4-6 on the O/U.
Indiana is having the same record of 6-4 against the spread, but the path to reach there was much different. After providing value for the money early on, the Pacers failed to cover in each of the last two games. They do enjoy playing at home better, where they are 3-1 so far. The reason for the road disappointments is that the Pacers simply give up too many points away from Indiana. They are 1-3 against the over/under in Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, and 4-2 in other arenas.
Admi-Rank: The Indiana Pacers hold a small edge at this point, but a good outcome in this game could mark a reversal of the current shaky trends for both sides. Both sides have average starts to the season, but this may well be enough to get them confidence for more.
These rivals are still searching for roles, identity, units that work. They are going to be inconsistent as they aren’t too good. But the potential is there, chiefly for the home side who have more pieces that fit well. On the other side, they don’t have a leader, a player who can take over when it matters. The Pelicans have two of those, and the Pacers frontcourt will have their hands full trying to slow them down. But, they can at least counter with some force of their own, while the Pels backcourt can’t match up with Indiana.
The visiting Pelicans have been favored to win again, probably as an effect of the current streaks. The spread is tiny, only 1.5 points as the market opens, so it’s almost like a 50-50 ball. I’m still standing by my evaluation of these two teams – the Pacers are a bit better, play at home and are underrated. Take the home team and support the spread wager with one on the moneyline.
The total points are expected at 216.5 for this encounter, a bit higher than the math tells us (213.5). Still, with both teams interested in scoring more than in defending, I’ll be asking for a full 5 points of a distance to accept the under.
My Pick: Indiana +1.5 (-115) and moneyline +100
Total: (no wager on the total points currently, but if you can get under 218.5, take it)
