Orlando Magic at New Orleans Pelicans odds, picks and prediction

Previewing Thursday’s Orlando Magic at New Orleans Pelicans NBA odds and lines, with basketball picks, tips and predictions.

The New Orleans Pelicans (21-25) host the Orlando Magic (16-31) Thursday at Smoothie King Center for an 8 p.m. ET tip-off. Below, we analyze the Magic-Pelicans odds and lines, with NBA picks and predictions.

Orlando stole a game from the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday, winning 103-96 as an 11-point road underdog. The Magic have covered the spread in four straight games while going 2-2 straight up.

These Magic covers were against four of the top-6 seeds in the Western Conference. The last three covers have been since they unloaded PF Aaron Gordon and C Nikola Vucevic at the trade deadline.

New Orleans has won four of five games while going 4-1 against the spread. The Pelicans have won back-to-back games with the latest coming against the Boston Celtics by a 115-109 score as 3-point road underdogs Monday.

The Pelicans are currently 12th in the West and are 1.5 games back of the 10th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, for the final spot in the postseason play-in tournament.

Magic at Pelicans: Odds, spread and lines

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 3:55 p.m. ET.

  • Money line: Magic +140 (bet $100 to win $140) | Pelicans -165 (bet $165 to win $100)
  • Against the spread/ATS: Magic +4 (-110) | Pelicans -4 (-110)
  • Over/Under: 214.5 (O: -105 | U: -115)

Magic at Pelicans: Key injuries

Magic

  • PG Cole Anthony (ribs) out
  • SG Gary Harris (thigh) out

Pelicans

  • PG Lonzo Ball (hip) questionable
  • PF Zion Williamson (thumb) questionable

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Magic at Pelicans: Odds, lines, predictions and picks

Prediction

Magic 114, Pelicans 109

Money line (ML)

Slight “LEAN” to MAGIC (+140) because I’m betting Orlando to cover the spread and the Pelicans will be without their first-, second-and third-leading scorers.

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Against the spread (ATS)

Both teams have been covering the spread for bettors recently but the Pelicans are more superstar-reliant.

This is a problem since their two young stars will miss this game, and I’m higher on Orlando head coach Steve Clifford than New Orleans’ Stan Van Gundy.

This is the prototypical game where the young Pelicans underperform. New Orleans is 5-10 ATS this season as a home favorite and 5-9 ATS at home against sub-.500 teams. Essentially these trends indicate the Pelicans sleep on bad teams.

Furthermore, according to CleaningTheGlass.com, New Orleans is 6-8 overall with the 22nd-best net points per 100 possessions and a minus-3.1-point ATS margin vs. teams in the bottom-10 of points per 100 possessions differential.

BET MAGIC +4 (-110) for 1.25 units.

Over/Under (O/U)

PASS because a major reason why New Orleans has played in the highest percentage of Overs this season is because of its terrible defense and, again, the Pelicans will be without their top-3 scorers.

Even though my predicted score is lower than the total, I “LEAN” Over 214.5 (-105) because anyone can make threes against this Pelicans defense and I’m sure New Orleans will resort to chucking threes thanks to injuries.

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