Game Time: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 

Venue:  Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Pelicans -8.5

Fanduel:  Spread:  Pelicans -8

BetMGM:  Spread: Pelicans -8.5

Magic: 16-49, 15th place Eastern Conference

Pelicans: 27-37, 10th place Western Conference

An NBA matchup between bad teams.  The Magic aren’t just a bad team… they have been built to be terrible, to nab a top NBA Draft pick.  The Pelicans are/were a bad team until very recently when they started winning.  Will the Pelicans make a play-in game?  Maybe.

The Magic routinely start guys at Forward who should not only NOT be playing forward… but may have no place in the league.  They do this so they don’t accidentally get too many wins.  The plan in Orlando has been chiseled in stone… develop the young picks that they have recently made, pile on the losses and get more picks.  A side project of the Magic is to give tryouts for players that have not worked elsewhere but were themselves also high draft picks… guys like former #1 pick SG/PG Markelle Fultz who although has not worked out in Philly or even really in Orlando.. He is a guy that still has multiple triple doubles on good night in the NBA.  They even have PF Mo Wagner… a lakers pick from years ago that is the older brother of their young star Franz Wagner… or SG RJ Hampton, a Milwaukee pick (that was traded to Orlando) that has yet to distinguish himself in any way near his pre-draft hype.  Or even C Bol Bol… Manute Bol’s son who has been in Denver, Boston, and now Orlando since his 2019 draft… He didn’t play much at either stop before Orlando and he doesn’t play in Orlando because of a foot injury.  A last place team needs to kick all these rocks in case they find one guy to pair with PG Cole Anthony, SG Jalen Suggs, and SF Fran Wagner… They can’t possibly think they have found their Center in Mo Bamba even if he is the team’s high paid player… The guy is missing key pieces in his game.  There will be more trades and more drafts to come… who Orlando ends up with will hopefully be better than they have now.

The New Orleans Pelicans messed up the Anthony Davis trade AND the Zion Williamson pick.  They really stubbed their toe on both moves.  The Anthony Davis trade brought multiple players and picks to New Orleans.  The picks are looking better the more the Lakers lose out West… but the trade of the #4 pick from the Lakers to Atlanta which meant they nabbed Jaxson Hayes for De’Andre Hunter, a big mistake.  The trade of PG Lonzo Ball, who they got from the Lakers, to Chicago for nothing so they wouldn’t have to pay him, was a big mistake.  The selection of Zion Williamson was the right move but ended in a big mistake since Zion can’t stay healthy and wants out of New Orleans with no trade value.  So the Pelicans find themselves in the place they have always been… bad.  They did do one thing right though.  They added SG CJ McCollum who is a great scorer.  The Pelicans are not devoid of talent… They are, however, in the same place they were before they started making any of these moves…. A bad team.  The hope in Louisiana is that injure PG Kira Lewis Jr will return and play as well as advertised.. That CJ McCollum will slide into the star role, and that Brandon Ingram has legs for a long fruitful career.  They still may be able to get something for Zion if he comes back for any amount of time before the end of the season (he won’t).

The Orlando Magic have won 4 of their last ten games… which is a pretty great ten game stretch for them this season.  They beat the Toronto Raptors, the Indiana Pacers, the Houston Rockets, and the Portland Trail Blazers.  They went 5-5 ATS during that stretch.  They have gone 4 Overs and 6 Unders.  The Magic are constantly looking for a team, any team, to play down to their level.  Leading scorer Cole Anthony would not be the leading scorer on 28 other teams… Leading assist man PG Cole Anthony gets less assists than PF Draymond Green does in Golden State.  The highs for Orlando are low for the league averages at their positions.  This creates an insane way to judge the numbers… it starts not with how good the team is, but with how bad the other team is.

The New Orleans Pelicans have won 5 of their last ten games.  What has everyone freaked out is that the Pelicans have won 4 of their last 5 games.  They had wins over the Utah Jazz, the Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Phoenix Suns! A mix of good teams in there.  They have gone 5-5 ATS during the ten games stretch and you better believe they won ATS in every game they won because they are always the underdog. The trick with the Pelicans is that they have a good starting five.  That’s it, no secret.  SG Cj McCollum, C Jonas Valanciunas, SF Brandon Ingram… they can overcome having to play alongside PF Jaxson Hayes and PG Herbert Jones… in fact if this exact team improved at PF and PG they would be a playoff team overnight.  If you look at their injured list… you find a PF and PG.  This team as constructed owes it to their fans to otrade the picks they are planning on using over the next few years.  They need a PG and a PF and the ones that have missed this entire season could be included in teh swaps they desperately need to make.

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The Magic are 16-49 on the season, but 29-36 ATS.  They have logged 33 Overs, 31 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 9-27 on the road.

The Pelicans are 27-37 on the season, but 32-31-1 ATS.  They have notched 24 Overs, 38 Unders, and 2 Push.  They are 15-17 in home games.

The Magic are 28th in scoring with 103.8 ppg, 22nd in rebounds with 43.8 per game, and 26th in AST/TO ratio with 1.6.  On defense they rank 22nd while allowing 111.9 ppg from opponents. Yes, the Magic allow 8.1 ppg more than they score!

The Pelicans are 22nd in scoring with 107.7 ppg, 7th in rebounds with 45.5 per game, and 15th in AST/TO ratio with 1.7.  On defense they rank 13th while holding opponents to 109.1 ppg.

Our prediction for Wednesday, March 9th is…. Pelicans 118 - Magic 100

The Pelicans will steamroll this terrible magic team.  I don’t bet (as a rule) on NBA spreads that are in the double digits.  It’s too overwhelming logically.  This spread determines the bet.  If you get single digits (even -9) take the bet for the Pelicans.  Anything more.,.. Then run screaming from the bet… even though I believe the Pelicans will blanket the Magic.

(Will update the trends as the numbers settle tonight)

Magic: C Wendell Carter Jr (ill) Probable ** SG Jalen Suggs (ankle) Quest ** C Bol Bol (foot) Out ** PF Jonathan Isaac (knee) Out

Pelicans: SF Brandon Ingram (hamstring) Quest  ** SF Larry Nance Jr (knee) Out ** PG Kira Lewis Jr (knee) Out ** PF Zion Williamson (foot) Out

Magic:  PF Chuma Okeke, SF Franz Wagner, C Mo Bamba, SG RJ Hampton, PG Cole Anthony

Pelicans: PF Jaxson Hayes, SF Brandon Ingram, C Jonas Valanciunas, Sg CJ McCollum, PG Herbert Jones

Magic

Points: Cole Anthony 17.4

Assists: 5.7

Rebounds: Wendell Carter Jr 10.4

Steals: Chuma Okeke 1.5

Blocks: Mo Bamba 1.8

Pelicans

Points: CJ McCollum 26.7

Assists: CJ McCollum 6.1

Rebounds: Jonas Valanciunas 11.6

Steals: Herbert Jones 1.6

Blocks: Herbert Jones 0.9