Pelicans vs. Clippers NBA Play-In Tournament Predictions for April 15 (Archive)
The Los Angeles Clippers should have some value for Friday’s NBA picks when they host the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western play-in.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. L.A. Clippers
Friday, April 15, 2022 – 10:00 PM EDT at Crypto.com Arena
The Los Angeles Clippers are probably going to win Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans. They’re the better team of the two, both on paper and in the Western Conference standings, where the Clippers (42-40 SU, 41-41 ATS) took the No. 8 seed into the play-in tournament.
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The Pelicans were No. 9 but finished six games behind Los Angeles at 36-46 SU and 41-40-1 ATS. The bigger question is whether the Clippers will cover that 4-point spread on the NBA board at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review). FiveThirtyEight (LAC –6) thinks so; Jeff Sagarin at The USA Today (LAC –3.31) does not.
But we’re not going to lean too heavily on the projections here at the ranch, not with Paul George and Norman Powell only recently returning to active duty for Los Angeles. In fact, those two gentlemen are the main reason we’re recommending the Clippers for your basketball picks.
Two Superstars, Four First Names
It’s almost as if the betting public forgot how good the Clippers are. They finished above .500 despite the season-long absence of Kawhi Leonard, and George being limited to 31 games. If it weren’t for the play-in tournament, they would have already qualified for the postseason as the No. 8 seed in the West.
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As it turns out, the Clippers have a number of quality players who aren’t Leonard or George. Los Angeles added to that number when they acquired Powell and Robert Covington from the Portland Trail Blazers at the trade deadline.
Covington has been strong for L.A. from the get-go; Powell was injured almost immediately, but is healthy again and has played well for the Clippers in his limited minutes.
Hey Pelican
To be fair, the Pelicans are no slouches. They’re still alive in the title hunt, having gotten zero games played from Zion Williamson (foot), who isn’t expected to be available until the second round at the earliest. Not a problem.
New Orleans made hay in their own deal with Portland when they scooped up CJ McCollum as part of a multi-player swap; with McCollum leading the charge, the Pellies are 9-5 SU and ATS since mid-March, including their 113-103 win over the No. 10 San Antonio Spurs (+5 away) in Thursday’s play-in game.
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The Pelicans even beat the Clippers 3-1 SU and ATS in their regular-season series. But not so fast: Of those four games, the only one that featured anything close to the lineups we’re likely to see Friday was the last one on April 3, where the Clippers beat New Orleans 119-100 as 2-point home faves. And that was without Powell in uniform.
The Pick
Los Angeles did shoot 21-for-44 from downtown (47.7 percent) in that game, and the Pellies went 9-for-24 (37.5 percent), so we don’t necessarily expect the Clippers to win by 19 points again. But more than the four points according to the latest NBA odds? Sure, for a small bet.
Score Prediction: Pelicans 105 - Clippers 110
NBA Pick: Clippers -4 (-108) at Heritage Sports
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.