basketball | Thursday, December 22, 2022 11:34 AM (Revised at: Friday, December 23, 2022 9:02 AM)

New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Best Bet: McCollum Leads Pelicans Box Score

Milan Stanojic

New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs: Thursday, December 22nd

The New Orleans Pelicans take on the San Antonio Spurs tonight at Smoothie King Center for their 3rd encounter of the season. The Pelicans comfortably won their first 2 games of the series, but they are facing a lot of injury issues. The bookmakers are giving them a -8.5 handicap line for tonight, but if that’s going to happen CJ McCollum is going to have to explode! No problem, he will be their best scoring option for tonight with Zion and BI out, and I have no problem backing him to get the job done.

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New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Preview
New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Best Bet

New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Preview

Fri, Dec 23rd. 01:00 (UK time)

The New Orleans Pelicans have been one of the best Western Conference teams this season, and are sitting in 3rd place in the standings with a record of 18 wins and 12 losses. The return of Zion Williamson along with the stellar play of Ingram, McCollum and their role players has propelled their players to new heights. They’ve been one of the best attacking teams in the NBA, ranking 6th in offensive rating whilst averaging 117.3 points per game (3rd). But they’ve been in poor form recently, losing 4 games in a row due to injury issues with Brandon Ingram and now Zion Williamson. Both are listed as out for tonight.

But when one door closes another opens, and such is the case for CJ McCollum tonight, who will most likely have to be the engine that drives the Pelicans. Zion and BI have averaged a combined 46 points this season whilst CJ is at just 18.7. We all that he is capable of going for a lot more and he has shown it at times this year too. And what better time to explode than when 2 of the team’s top scorers are sitting out? The Pelicans are heavily favoured to win this one and the spread was set at -10.0 points but has since shifted to -8.5. I expect it to shrink even more.

The San Antonio Spurs are in full rebuild mode and are already preparing a place in the locker room for Victor Wembanyama. With 10 wins and 20 losses, they are 14th in the Western Conference. The Rockets are stiff competition for the bottom spot in the west with 9 wins and 20 losses, but you can bet the Spurs are going to be battling it out until game 82. They have won 4 of their last 10 games and are coming off a 124-105 win against the Houston Rockets. However, their top player Keldon Johnson is listed as ‘doubtful’ for tonight’s game.

The Spurs have been notoriously bad this year in most aspects of the game, ranking 29th in offensive, 30th in defensive and 30th in net rating. Their offensive game is developing, with young players like Keldon Johnson, Devin Vessel still in development, but they are averaging around 20 points per game. But the most important aspect of their game for tonight will be their defence or lack of it. The Spurs are the worst defensive team in the NBA, allowing a cool 119.5 points per game and allowing opponents to shoot 50.5% from the field and 38.9% from beyond the arc. Guess who we’re backing to take advantage of this?

New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs Best Bet

CJ Mccollum hasn’t exactly had the best season this year, averaging 18.7 points per game, but he has shown signs of his former self. In his last 5 games, CJ has averaged 25.8 points per game, and in the last 2, he went for 31 and 27 respectively. The points line next to his name looks extremely low, especially given the fact he will be their main scorer tonight. I expect CJ to go for another 30 points, and given the Spurs’ lack of perimeter defence, he should be able to get into a nice groove from downtown too.

Selection: CJ Mccollum Over 24.5 Points
Best odds: 1.83 (bet365)
Stakes: 3/10
Bonus: CJ Mccollum Over 2.5 Threes Made at 1.83 odds at 3/10 stakes (bet365)

Odds as of 12:30 pm December 22nd, 2022. Odds may now differ.

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