Portland at New Orleans
Time: 4 PM CT (TNT)
Spread: NOP -7
Total: 216
Odds c/o 5dimes
The New Orleans Pelicans have dominated this series through three games, taking both games in Portland and winning Game 3 by a 119-102 score.
The Pelicans now can close it out in Game 4 with a sweep, and NBA oddsmakers at bookmaker 5dimes expect nothing less, setting the line 7-points in favor of the Pelicans.
New Orleans has won the first three games by an average of 9.3 points, which makes the likelihood of Anthony Davis and company covering the spread pretty good. The over/under is set at 216 points, and the total has gone 192 points in Game 1, 213 points in Game 2 and 221 in Game 3.
Davis and combo guard Jrue Holiday are both playing their best basketball of the 2017-18 season. The Pelicans are hot. From Holiday’s defense on Damian Lillard to his prodigious scoring outputs, he is now looking like the player the Pelicans had no problems once trading its No. 6 overall pick (Nerlens Noel) for to the Philadelphia 76ers. While Holiday has battled injuries and personal problems ever since he is emerging in his All-Star form at just the right time.
Holiday held Lillard to 5 of 14 shooting while helping to force eight turnovers from Portland’s All-Star, all the while scoring 16 of his own, dishing seven assists, grabbing three rebounds and coming up with three steals. Holiday finished +19 for his 32 minutes of court time, which tied Nikola Mirotic for the best plus-minus of any Pelicans starter.
Mirotic has been downright impressive in his own right. Even since cutting off the grotesque beard that he wore most of his career. The former Chicago Bull had 30 points on 12 of 15 shooting including 4 of 6 from three-point range, to go along with eight rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block. Anthony Davis did his thing, of course, with 28 points, 11 rebounds and two assists—as well as five block/steals. The Pelicans received precious little help from its second unit, but the game was also never that close.
The Pelicans led by 16 points after the first quarter, and Portland never could manage to overcome that early deficit. New Orleans shot 53 percent from the field and hit 11 of 27 from downtown which enabled it to overcome a -6 disadvantage on the boards. The Pelicans also only had 12 turnovers while forcing 24 from the Blazers. There really is hardly a facet of this series the Pelicans have not dominated, which makes it an easy pick to wrap this series up with a sweep at the Smoothie King Center.
ATS TRENDS
| Portland | |
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| New Orleans | |
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