NBA Odds – Orlando Magic at New Orleans Pelicans

Finally, after four long months, the NBA is set to return. On opening day tomorrow, the Orlando Magic will visit the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans to face the Pelicans (8: 00 p.m. Eastern).

The Pelicans are favored by -7.5 points in the opener. Last season, New Orleans posted a 36-39-7 record against the spread but, in their last eight games at home, had a 6-1-1 ATS streak.

On the other side, Orlando was an awful bet last year, going 34-45-3 against the number. The Magic are also 2-8 ATS in their last ten games against New Orleans.

The over/under is currently at 197.5 points. Looking at the teams’ history, the under seems like the best pick; the Pelicans have gone under in four of their last six games, while the Magic have gone under in seven of eight.

Second year playmaker Victor Oladipo is questionable for the Magic with a face injury; but fourth overall pick Aaron Gordon and tenth overall pick Elfrid Payton will be making their NBA debuts. The Magic’s top returning scorers Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris will be looking to get off to fast starts in 2014. (Last year’s leading scorer, Arron Afflalo, was dealt to the Denver Nuggets in the off-season.)

The Magic will be facing a Pelican side that has one main goal for the season: make the playoffs.  Leading the charge, both tomorrow and all season, will be third-year man Anthony Davis. In his second year, Davis became a dominant big-man in the Association, upping his averages from 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game (in his rookie year) to 20.8 points and 10.0 rebounds (last season). He will be looking to make more improvements in his third year, and the pundits see Davis as a potential MVP contender. Helping Davis upfront will be the ever-improving Ryan Anderson. The seventh-year power forward out of Cal has upped his points per game average in each of his first six seasons, hitting 19.8 PPG last year. With the offense running through Davis more and more, Anderson may not see that trend continue, but he will be relied on heavily for secondary scoring. Feeding the big-men down low will be point guard Jrue Holiday, who put together a nice season last year, averaging over 14 points and nearly eight assists per game, along with a 2.5-to-1 assist-turnover ratio.

With their emerging superstar primed for a huge season, bet the Pelicans to cover at home.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (Flickr: Anthony Davis) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo may appear cropped from its original.)