The San Antonio Spurs (29-29) are in the Big Easy Saturday for an 8 p.m. ET game against the New Orleans Pelicans (26-33) at Smoothie King Center. Below, we analyze the Spurs-Pelicans odds and lines, with NBA picks and predictions.
San Antonio is 3-1 straight up (SU) and against the spread (ATS) over its last four games. Each game was decided by at least 15 points with the latest being a 106-91 victory over the Detroit Pistons Thursday.
NOLA snapped a four-game losing skid (0-4 ATS) Thursday by beating up on the hapless Orlando Magic 135-100. Two of those losses were against the white-hot New York Knicks team, with others coming against the surging Washington Wizards and first-place Brooklyn Nets.
The Spurs split their first two meetings with the Pelicans this season. Each team has a win by 3 points. San Antonio beat NOLA in five of the last six head-to-head meetings and has covered the spread in four straight.
Spurs at Pelicans: Odds, spread and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 11:50 a.m. ET.
- Money line: Spurs +125 (bet $100 to win $125) | Pelicans -150 (bet $150 to win $100)
- Against the spread/ATS: Spurs +3 (-110) | Pelicans -3 (-110)
- Over/Under: 227.5 (O: -115 | U: -105)
Spurs at Pelicans: Key injuries
Spurs
- SF DeMar DeRozan (quadriceps) questionable
- PF Rudy Gay (back) questionable
- PF Trey Lyles (ankle) out
Pelicans
- C Steven Adams (ankle) probable
- PF James Johnson (groin) questionable
- SG Nickeil Alexander-Walker (ankle) out
- SG Josh Hart (thumb) out
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Spurs at Pelicans: Odds, lines, predictions and picks
Prediction
Pelicans 122, Spurs 104
Money line (ML)
This is as close to a playoff game for the PELICANS (-150) as a regular-season game gets. NOLA is 11th in the Western Conference. The Pelicans are 3.5 games behind the 10th-seeded Spurs for the final seed in the postseason play-in tournament.
If DeRozan can’t play it would mean the Spurs are without their leading scorer and assist man and Gay sitting out would hurt San Antonio’s interior defense.
According to CleaningTheGlass.com, Gay is in the 97th percentile of bigs for on-off court defensive effective field-goal percentage and 80th percentile for defensive field-goal percentage of attempts at the rim.
Missing a key defensive big is not ideal if you’re hoping to contain Pelicans PF Zion Williamson. He leads the NBA in points in the paint per game.
TAKE PELICANS (-150) for 1 unit.
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Against the spread (ATS)
PASS because this is a “bad spot” for the Pelicans -3 (-110) and a good one for the Spurs +3 (-110).
San Antonio is 11-4 ATS as a road dog and NOLA is 6-13 ATS as a home favorite this season.
Over/Under (O/U)
Slight “LEAN” to the UNDER 227.5 (-105) for a quarter unit if at all because I prefer the sides more than the total in this game.
The pro-Under arguments are NOLA being 24th in offensive rating this month, the Under cashing in five straight games for San Antonio and in four of the last five Spurs-Pelicans meetings.
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