The Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans will meet in the final Western Conference play game here on Friday night. Both of these teams were in action earlier this week on Tuesday in the opening round of the play-in and it was vastly different results for both of them. The Sacramento Kings picked up a victory over the Golden State Warriors to send the Warriors packing for the rest of the season and advance to this second game. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Pelicans came up against the Los Angeles Lakers in their game and now they have a second opportunity to get into the postseason.
This should be a solid game between two teams that had high expectations coming into the regular season, but ended up having pretty underwhelming years at the end of the day. Both of these teams have rosters that are more than deserving of a playoff spot, but only one of them can grab the eighth seed in the conference. The winner of this game here on Friday night will face off with Oklahoma City in the opening round of the postseason. This should be a solid game even with the doubt around Zion Williamson’s availability after he suffered an injury in their game on Tuesday against Los Angeles.
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History Between These Two Teams This will be the sixth meeting between the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans this season. The two teams met four times throughout the regular season and once more in the NBA in-season tournament. The five previous games produced rather successful results for New Orleans as they picked up five victories in five opportunities against Sacramento.
Only two of those games took place in New Orleans, but the two victories still give them the advantage throughout this game, as they have played solid basketball and matchup against Sacramento this season. Four out of their five meetings this season have been high scoring contests with not so close results as Sacramento has come up short each, and every time, and New Orleans has run away with the game, the majority of the time as well.
New Orleans has picked up wins at home by scores of 129-93, and 117-112. Meanwhile, they picked up an additional three victories out on the west coast by scores of 127-117, 133-100, and 135-123 against Sacramento. They will look to replicate all five of those results and pick up a much-needed victory here on Friday night to keep their season alive in advance to the opening round of the playoffs. It is very hard to beat the same team multiple times in one season let alone five and now they will look for a sixth consecutive victory over Sacramento here in this one.
Today’s Predictions I expect this to be a much more competitive game than we’ve seen in the previous five matchups between Sacramento and New Orleans. Especially with Zion Williamson being banged up and either limited or unavailable for this contest on Friday night. If he had remained healthy in their loss to the Lakers earlier this week, there is a much better chance that New Orleans would’ve come out and already clinched their spot in the postseason. Zion Williamson and his potential hindered in this game. I think it’ll be tough for New Orleans to get things going, making this contest much closer than their previous five encounters this season.
However, I look for CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram to pick up the slack throughout this game on Friday night at home as they have put up solid performances in the previous matchup between these two teams. I expect more of the same here in this one as New Orleans looks to the final playoff in the Western Conference and keep their hopes at winning an NBA championship alive this season. I don’t look for Sacramento. I look for Fox and Domantas Sabonis to put up quality numbers throughout this game. Especially with the limited role or absence of Zion Williamson, Sabonis should have solid numbers throughout this game on Friday night. He has been putting up double-double numbers throughout the majority of the season and I don’t expect to change that here in New Orleans either.
Tips For Betting New Orleans has posted decent results at home this season winning 21 out of 40 games throughout the regular season. However, it is still worth noting that they came up short against Los Angeles at home in the opening playoff game. They will be searching for a bounce-back victory in this one to keep their home record strong, and secure themselves at least a couple more home games this season.
As previously mentioned, the New Orleans Pelicans are undefeated against the Sacramento Kings this season in five previous matchups. The majority of those victories came by double digits, which gives New Orleans a solid edge coming into this game on Friday night at home. Two of those victories came in New Orleans with the other three coming on the road in Sacramento as the Pelicans showed they could win against the Kings either on the road or at home. As they flexed their muscles against them every time. Since it’s extremely difficult to go undefeated against the same team in the same season and the absence of Zion Williamson, I look for this game to go the opposite way, and I look for the Sacramento Kings to grab their first victory against New Orleans this season.
The Pick: Sacramento Kings ML (-120) Picks given are the opinion of the writer, not Elitepickz pros. To get picks from some of the sharpest minds in the industry, sign up here and use code AB15 for 15% off any pass!
