NBA Betting – New Orleans Pelicans at Phoenix Suns
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
New Orleans Pelicans at Phoenix Suns (-1)
The last spot in the Western Conference playoffs is a three-team race at the moment, and two of them will clash tonight when the New Orleans Pelicans (37-30, 14-18 away) visit the Phoenix Suns (35-33, 19-15 home) at the US Airways Center  (10:00 p.m. Eastern).
New Orleans is improving at just the right time. The team has won four of its last five games, including an 85-84 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday Night, with 20 points and 12 rebounds from star forward Anthony Davis.
“It felt like a playoff game,” said Davis. “It was physical. That’s how it’s going to be from here on out. It’s going to be battles. But we came out with the win, so we’re happy about that.”
The Pelicans are currently ninth in the West, just half a game back of eighth place Oklahoma City for the coveted final playoff berth.
Phoenix, meanwhile, is headed in the opposite direction. They held down eighth spot in the conference for much of the year, but have dropped to tenth, three games back of OKC. The Suns have lost three of their last five, but handled the New York Knicks on Sunday, 102-89.
Despite the lopsided score, Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek was only half-pleased with the game.
“We had ten turnovers in the first half, which allowed them 16 turnover points, and that’s a killer,” said Hornacek. “They took care of the ball in the second half and we ended up with 14 assists and three turnovers.”
Everything went downhill for Phoenix at the trade deadline when they dealt guards Goran Dragic (to the Miami Heat) and Isaiah Thomas (to the Boston Celtics). They brought in Brandon Knight from Milwaukee, but he and Eric Bledsoe haven’t been able to find the magic that propelled the Suns in the early season.
Making matters worse, Knight has missed the last three games with an ankle injury and remains questionable for tonight. Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday won’t suit up for the Pelicans.
The Suns have won and covered the spread the last two times the Pelicans visited the US Airways Center. Phoenix is a one-point favorite for this matchup.
(Photo credit:Â Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
