10* New Orleans (9:05 ET): The Pelicans haven’t won a home game since January 2nd, which was 23 days ago if you don’t have your calendar handy. They are coming off an unsuccessful 1-5 road trip where the only team they managed to defeat was lowly Sacramento. It should be noted the Pelicans did play four games against the West’s top three teams (Lakers, Clippers, Jazz twice) on the trip, though there’s no excuse for an outright loss (as 8.5-pt chalk) at Minnesota that occurred on Saturday.

San Antonio finds itself in the second night of a back to back after they beat Washington 121-101 last night. That was the Wizards’ first game in two weeks, so they were at a significant disadvantage. Previous to that win, the Spurs had lost B2B games and I’d played against them both times. My 10* Game of the Week was Warriors 121-99 on Wednesday while Friday’s 122-117 loss to the Mavs saw the Spurs trailing most of the way. They have lost both previous games w/o rest, averaging only 91.5 points per game.

My view is that New Orleans is going to come out very hungry as they aim to end this three-game home losing streak. Note two of the three losses were by 2 points or less. The Pelicans really should be better than 5-10 SU at this point, although playing two-thirds of their games on the road is tough. They beat the Spurs in the home opener this season, 98-95, and that was on a poor shooting night. Like this game, the Spurs were in the second night of a back to back. San Antonio’s only other game without rest this season was an outright loss at Minnesota where they scored only 88 points. 10* New Orleans