One more NBA Season starting tonight! Let's crush the sportsbooks one more time!
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NBA Pick: Orlando Magic @ New Orleans Pelicans
Rating: 3 units - Single Dime Play
Pick: New Orleans Pelicans (-9,5)
Odds: -103 / 1.97 on Pinnacle OR -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
Detailed Write Up:
This will be one of the few times where we will see the Pelicans having such a big spread this season. The reason for that is that their roster is far from being at an elite level, given how unbalanced it is. However, they have a brilliant matchup in here against Orlando. The Magic are currently struggling with injuries and this means that their projected starting lineup for tonight is formed by Vucecvic - O'Quinn - Harkless - Harris - Ridnour! With such lineup, their offensive focus will be all over Nikola Vucevic, but these are great news for New Orleans's defense, who will (once again) struggle in closing out the perimeter, but who will have a great rim defense with Omer Asik and Anthony Davis patrolling the paint.
I expect the Magic to struggle this season on outside shooting and they've already shown that during the preseason by shooting 32.5% 3pts. With Orlando's offense being limited, I believe the Pelicans' offense will be sharp enough to make some damage on the other side of the court. Anthony Davis is a true superstar and close to unstoppable, especially when he will be guarded tonight by Kyle O'Quinn. With Victor Oladipo out by injury, Orlando will have to play without their best perimeter defender and with rookie Elfrid Peyton still learning the NBA basics, I believe the Pelicans' perimeter shooting to also have some edge in here. All signs point to a double digits win by New Orleans tonight and so, I'll take them in here.