The New Orleans Pelicans have had the Los Angeles Lakers’ number this season, beating them at home and on the road. In this game, they will look to extend their run of success against Los Angeles, with huge playoff implications on the line for both teams. In Friday’s NBA predictions, we look at Pelicans vs Lakers in a matchup that carries some high stakes out West.
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Pelicans vs Lakers Betting Pick
This game will be played at Crypto.com Arena at 10:30 PM ET on Friday, April 1, 2022.
Why Bet The Pelicans:
✅ Anthony Davis and LeBron James are expected to return to the lineup for the Lakers in this matchup. The problem is that they have not had any time on court recently, and will need to ramp things up slowly before they are back to operating at their peak performance levels. That will help the Pelicans sneak away with another win against the Lakers here.
✅ Los Angeles is playing on the second night of a back to back here, after being beaten by double digits against the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. While Davis and James did not play in that game, the rest of the Lakers roster did, which means that there will be some tired legs behind the top two players for Los Angeles here..
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✅ The Pelicans have already won at Crypto.com Arena earlier this season, and the Lakers have not been a convincing home team at all in the 2021-2022 campaign. Los Angeles is just 20-18 on their home floor this season, which is nowhere near good enough given the talent at the top end of that roster.
New Orleans Pelicans
The New Orleans Pelicans have fought through a ton of adversity this season to be in a position to play in the play-in tournament. They hold a two-game lead over the 11th place Lakers, with the Spurs in between these two teams in 10th place. New Orleans will look to pad their lead with a win against the Lakers on Friday night.
In order to pad that lead, the Pelicans will need to slow down LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who are set to return for this game. Being physical with Davis is going to be important from the start, as his fragility combined with a lack of court time could be a recipe for the Pelicans to push him around a bit. While Jonas Valanciunas lacks some of the mobility needed to stick with Davis on the perimeter, the Pelicans center should use his physicality whenever possible against Davis in the paint.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are in danger of missing the NBA playoffs entirely, as they currently sit in 11th place in the Western Conference. However, they are set to get their two best players back from injury for this final push. The question is whether LeBron James and Anthony Davis are enough to cover up the glaring deficiencies of the rest of this roster.
At the very least, having James and Davis back on the floor will mean that the Lakers do not have to rely quite as heavily on Russell Westbrook. That alone is a win for the Lakers, as Westbrook has looked like a shell of his former self this season. But the Lakers will need more contributors than just James and Davis against a Pelicans team that is surprisingly deep as they have improved throughout the season.