New Orleans Pelicans at Golden State Warriors
Time: 9:30 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: GSW -15.5
Total: 229.5
Betting odds c/o 5dimes
The Golden State Warriors continue their pursuit of history. The Warriors currently sit at 59-6 and need to go 14-3 (or better) to compile the single winningest most season in NBA history. The Warriors are still a perfect 30-0 at Oracle Arena, too, where it hosts the New Orleans Pelicans on NBA League Pass. The Warriors are 15.5 point favorites in the game with a typically Warriors high over/under of 229.5.
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The Pelicans have suffered a major regression since crashing the 2015 playoffs. New Orleans is just 24-41 this season and 8.5 games behind No. 8 Dallas in a nearly-impossible pursuit to avoid certain lottery fate. The Pelicans have won just two of their past 10 games and have lost the past three. One thing that could be said is that having a franchise player in Anthony Davis, the Pelicans can refigure the roster to make it competitive very quickly. But the current season has been relatively miserable for Davis and the Pels.
Davis has had an expected monster season with 24.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.4 blocks/steals per game in 36 minutes a night, but the Pelicans really have been mostly a disaster on the defensive end. New Orleans gives up 106 points per game which ranks third-to-last in the Western Conference.
The Pelicans also have a -3.3 point differential and a 7-26 mark on the road this season. It seems fairly certain that the Warriors do not relinquish the opportunity to punish another weak team on its home court.
Even if Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson get considerable rest against an inferior opponent, the Warriors second unit is enough to take care of New Orleans entirely on its own.
And that is part of what makes Golden State so unbeatable. The rotation really does go 11 or 12 players deep, with the bottom of it still yielding productive players like Anderson Varejao and James Michael McAdoo.
Clearly the Warriors are a team mostly thriving on the implausibly awesome season Steph Curry has compiled. His 32.3 PER speaks to just how far and above he has been to the league’s other point guards. He is averaging 30.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists while shooting 51.1 percent from the floor and 46 percent from three. A seldom talked about fact is that with his 91 percent free throw shooting he will enter the exclusive 50/40/90 club.
The Warriors most unique talent is still Draymond Green, because he is a nightly threat for triple-doubles. The undersized-4 is averaging 13.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. And to think there were analysts questioning whether he was worth a max contract? Green has become the face of the new small ball power forward movement, and he does not even have to hoist endless threes to do it: Green shoots 38.3 percent from behind the arc on 3.1 attempts per game.
Really the Warriors can withstand some injuries and even lossage of players in free agency and still keep this dynasty chugging on. The defensive effort the Warriors put forth may be the most deceptive, because on a per-possession basis the Warriors are pesky defenders with plenty of plus-defenders in the rotation.
The pace can deceive, but be not misled: Golden State will be able to defend the likes of San Antonio and Oklahoma City. That, more than even their outstanding shooting, is what helps guarantee this club postseason success. Of course, hitting 12.8 threes per game at a 41.3 percent team clip does tend to make this team impossible to take down in a seven game series—particularly when Golden State is so unbeatable at home.
