New Orleans at Dallas
Time: WED, 8 PM ET
TV: ESPN
Spread: DAL -7
Total: 209
Betting odds c/o Bovada
The 10-10 New Orleans Pelicans are making the trip to face a Dallas Mavs team that is 8-3 at home and trying to move up in the rugged Western Conference.
The Pelicans have been a slight surprise behind the strong play of young Anthony Davis, but to prove it can hang with true contenders, a good start would be with a ‘W’ tonight in the Big D.
NBA oddsmakers at Bovada set the line seven-points in favor of the Mavericks with a high scoring total in NBA odds of 209, due largely to Dallas’ high scoring offense.
For the Pelicans, it begins and ends with Davis. He’s posting one of the highest PERs ever (determined by his play relative to those at his position) of 32.8 while boasting gaudy stats: 24.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.05 steals and 2.9 blocks per game.
Davis is shooting 58.1 percent from two-point range and for the first time in his basketball career, he’s knocking down free throws at a 76 percent clip. He’s going to be in the running for MVP, though the Pelicans .500-ish record may scare some voters off.
Beyond Davis, the Pellies need better production from its surrounding core. Jrue Holiday came at the cost of a first round pick, and the one-time All Star needs to play like one. It’s not that Holiday’s 15 points and six assists per game are bad marks; it’s that Holiday is the second best player on the team and he’s capable of far better.
As a point man, Holiday needs to abet Davis and Omer Asik more around the hole, as both are good finishers (Davis, great) and with some better ball distribution the offense would run far more smoothly. The Pelicans certainly can’t rely on Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon to make plays; not anymore, anyway.
Eric Gordon, unsurprisingly, is on the shelf for three to four weeks, as it is. This time it’s a torn labrum in his left shoulder. It’s always something new for Gordon.
Few seem to remember that the hosting Dallas Mavericks gave the eventual 2014 champion the San Antonio Spurs the toughest challenge the Spurs faced in the postseason, drawing the series out to seven games and showing that Dallas is not a team that can be forgotten about. At 16-7, the Mavs sit near the bottom of the West’s playoff picture, but there’s not much separating the top-seven teams in the West.
The Mavs are the highest scoring team in the league, and it’s been the strong play of the top-three that have propelled the Mavs to this point. It doesn’t hurt that going eight-deep on the roster, everyone is still averaging about eight points per game or more.
Dallas has a trio of mediocre point guards that many thought may hamper the team offensively. Jammer Nelson, Devin Harris and J.J. Barea all come with serious downsides, but each has brought enough to the table to keep teams guessing. Nelson is a great lob passer, and his 4.4 assists per game are second only to Monta Ellis, who sees about nine minutes more per game. This team is still just starting to gel and will seek to take advantage of a game against a middling team on its home court.
