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A Western Conference clash between the Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night caps the betting week. It’s been a turbulent season for the Pels, who have shown signs of being a quality, playoff contending team. There just hasn’t been enough of that. The Clippers are a championship contender and they reach for the reset button in the second half after closing with three straight losses and four in five games ahead of the All-Star break. Bookmaker.eu offers a generous welcome bonus (max bonus $1600)
Los Angeles Clippers at New Orleans Pelicans
Date and Time: Sunday, March 14, 2021, 9 p.m. ET
Location: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
Opening NBA Odds: Check Back Later
Clippers at Pelicans TV Coverage: ESPN
Odds Analysis
Every team goes through a funk during the course of a long season. The good ones are defined by limiting the damage. For the Clippers the damage reached three straight games ahead of the All-Star break. A loss at Milwaukee wasn’t the worst thing for the Clips, but the ones that followed were painful. Setbacks at Boston and Washington by a combined seven points were tough to swallow. The games were close, but LA was favored both times losing out right to go 0-3 ATS in the final three before the break and 1-4 SU and ATS on their five-game road trip. The Clippers entered the break fourth in the West at 24-14 SU and 20-18 ATS. They had the same number of victories as the Lakers and Suns but also a few more losses. For a minute it looked like the Pels were poised to make a run. They lost on the road to the Bucks and Spurs by a total of seven points then knocked off the NBA best Jazz 129-124 at home. The good vibes didn’t last with setbacks to the Bulls and Heat just before the break. The Pels are 15-21 SU and ATS but they have cashed the OVER in 26 of their first 36 games.
Los Angeles Clippers
When you know one of your star players is out of a game the rest of the team has time to prepare for the confrontation. Things get more jumbled when the scratch comes at the last minute. Good teams need to adjust and the Clips failed to do that against Boston and Washington. Kawhi Leonard was a late scratch for the Celtics game and the hosts took advantage handing LA a 117-112 defeat. Paul George tried his best to pick up the scoring slack dropping 32 points. Reggie Jackson netted 25 points and seven assists as Leonard’s replacement in the starting lineup.
It happened to the Clips two nights later in Washington only this time George was the game-time scratch after experiencing dizzy spells. The good news is that Leonard was in the lineup and both guys participated in the All-Star Game over the weekend so the issues aren’t long term. And the recent funk hasn’t affected the overall goal of the Clips. “Just trying to get wins. Get some continuity, some chemistry, execution, trying to get these wins so we’ve got some carryover into the playoffs,” George said of the team’s second half goals.
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pels are also trying to get wins and they need a lot of them in the second half in order to crawl into playoff contention. They picked up a big win last week knocking off Utah behind a trio of 20-point scorers. Zion Williamson had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Brandon Ingram added 26 points and Lonzo Ball chipped in 23 with eight assists. Those three are the present and future of the club, and when they play like they did against the Jazz, New Orleans is tough to beat. Unfortunately it just hasn’t happened enough. The Pels followed what should have been a season-changing victory by losing the next two.
Offense isn’t a problem for the Pels. They average 115.5 points and shoot over 48 percent from the field, both are top-5 marks in the NBA. They get solid contributions with eight players averaging at least 8.0 points. The issue is on the other end of the floor. “One of our problems is our guys will beat themselves up about missing shots and missing free throws. But the defensive stuff just doesn’t get to them in the same way,” Stan Van Gundy said. And because of that the OVER is 13-2 in their previous 15 games and 26-10 overall.
Bet Clippers at Pelicans at BookMaker.eu
LA won the first meeting back in January 111-106 stretching their winning streak in the series to four. Kawhi and George combined for 55 points and the Pels were without Williamson. It’s hard to back the Pels since they’ve been so inconsistent and their defense is practically non-existent. This is a good time for LA’s dynamic duo to do its thing.
NBA Score Prediction: Clippers 118, Pelicans 110
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- Phil Simon, Gambling911.com
