Just a game after Brandon Ingram dropped 41-points in a 138-100 blowout victory over the Toronto Raptors, the New Orleans Pelicans head into LA to face the red-hot Clippers. With the regular season series being tied at 1-1 and the Pels already winning a game in LA, they’ll be optimistic in their hopes of extending this current 3-game win streak they’re on. If we look at this match-up closely, we can see that the Pelicans have had the edge for quite some time now having won 8 of their last 10 vs the Clippers, while also covering the spread in 11 of the last 13 meetings. Zion Williamson is healthy and playing consistently, he fits in really well with Ingram and McCollum on offense. Over their last 10 games, the Pelicans actually rank 9th in offensive rating and if they can maintain this level of play I can definitely see them winning their division ahead of the Dallas Mavericks.
LA is enjoying it’s best stretch of basketball over a span of 31 games in franchise history. That’s right, since December 1st the Clippers have gone 26-5 SU and lead the NBA in both field goal and three-point percentage. Kawhi Leonard is a man on a mission – he leads the team with 24.4 points per game on insane efficiency. But it’s not all just him, James Harden has adapted really well to his new surroundings and Russell Westbrook is making a huge contribution off the bench. This will be the first game following a long road trip for the Clippers, they come back home where they are currently on an 8-game win streak. They’re also 14-3 SU in their last 17 games vs Western Conference opponents, it’s really hard to find a flaw when analyzing this team at the moment.
