After a heroic 115-92 victory over the New York Knicks last night which ended a 2-game slide, the Pelicans are back in action this evening as they head to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers. Despite being without C.J. McCollum the Pels were able to shoot over 50% from the field and almost 53% from downtown in the win, but more importantly they held the Knicks to just 92 points in what was one of their better efforts on that end of the floor this season. The quick turnaround isn’t ideal, however the Pelicans have 3 wins in their last 5 games when playing with no rest. Unless they decide to rest either one or both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, I can definitely see them putting up resistance here. They’ve had a pretty good track record in head-to-head meetings, covering the spread 10 times in the last 15 games.
The extra day of rest before this game will do the Pacers good following a disastrous defensive effort in their 130-122 loss to Toronto on Monday. Defense is all about building habits and they just set themselves back a couple of weeks of progress by letting the Raptors run circles around them and shoot over 55% from the field. Tyrese Haliburton also had a poor performance with just 9 points on 2-for-11 shooting. Whether or not that was due to his lingering hamstring injury or something else remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure if he doesn’t improve in tonight’s game it could be another long night for the Pacers. Indiana has a golden opportunity to move up the standings in the crowded East, but in order to do that they have to start racking up wins. They are an encouraging 10-3 SU in their last 13 home games vs New Orleans.
