The New Orleans Pelicans pay a visit to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The New Orleans Pelicans have been in decent shape as they’ve won four of their last seven games overall, but they will be hoping to avoid a third straight defeat after falling short to the Raptors in a 115-110 road loss on Thursday. Brandon Ingram led the team with 36 points on 12 of 27 shooting, CJ McCollum added 23 points with five assists while Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 12 points and 12 rebounds. As a team, the Pelicans shot 46 percent from the field and 13 of 30 from the 3-point line as they got off to another slow start and found themselves trailing by 15 points at the end of the third quarter which proved to be just too much to overcome as they couldn’t get closer than a two-point deficit from that point.
Meanwhile, the New York Knicks have been in fine form as they’ve won seven of their last nine games overall and they will be eager to build on their current four-game win streak after beating the Wizards in a 115-109 road win last night. Julius Randle led the team with 46 points on 16 of 29 shooting, Immanuel Quickley added 16 points off the bench while RJ Barrett chipped in with 14 points. As a team, the Knicks shot 48 percent from the field and 12 of 29 from the 3-point line as they got off to a poor start and allowed 38 points in the first quarter to trail by as many as 19 points, but they clawed their way back and made their move in the fourth quarter where they closed the final 42 seconds on a 6-0 run to pull away and steal the game in a tight finish.
Looking at the betting trends, the Pelicans are 1-5 ATS in their last six road games and 4-12 ATS in their last 16 games against a team with a winning record. The Knicks are 3-1-1 ATS in their last five home games, 20-7-2 ATS in their last 29 games playing on zero days rest and 4-1-1 ATS in their last six games overall.
Head to head, the under is 14-6 in the last 20 meetings in New York and the over is 4-1 in the last five meetings overall.
The Pelicans are still shorthanded as Zion Williamson is out and Dyson Daniels is questionable, while the Knicks will again be missing Evan Fournier. The Pelicans have been struggling for form ever since they lost Williamson to injury and it’s hard to back them against the Knicks who have quietly been playing some of their best basketball of the season. Yes, the Knicks are playing this one on zero days rest, but they are 20-7-2 ATS in their last 29 games playing on zero days rest and I think they can take care of business at home.
AUTHOR: Peter Tran
