On February 13th, the hot Orlando Magic travel to New Orleans where they face off against the struggling New Orleans Pelicans.

New Orleans Pelicans have managed to hold on to their star player Anthony Davis after a lot of speculations of him moving to Lakers. However, after high demands from New Orleans, the agreement fell into the water. While it seems Lakers have lost out on the trade, I personally believe the demands for Davis were far too high.

As for New Orleans performances, I am far from impressed. In their last 10 games, Pelicans only won 3 times. It's true they have had some good runs, but overall Pelicans are terrible this season. With an overall record of 25-32, Pelicans are 13th in the West, far from reaching the playoffs spot.

Looking at their last 5 games, Pelicans were on a 2 game winning streak, defeating Chicago Bulls (120:125) and Minnesota Timberwolves (122:117), however, their run came to an end with a defeat on February 10th against Memphis Grizzlies (99:90). Now they are getting ready to face off against the hot Orlando Magic at Smoothie King Center in their 1st H2H match this season.

Orlando Magic, currently 10th in the East are seemingly working hard to reach playoffs. After a terrible run of 7 defeats in 8 games, Orlando Magic have improved drastically, winning 5 out of their last 6 games, only kneeling down to Oklahoma City Thunder on February 6th (132:122).

Coming into their next match, Orlando are on 3 games winning streak. They managed to defeat Minnesota Timberwolves (122:112), Milwaukee Bucks (83:103) and most recently Atlanta Hawks (108:124). While the 3 consecutive win record is impressive on its own, I am highly impressed by their win against Bucks, who have now lost 14 games this season, which keep in mind is still the least among all NBA teams this season.

Verdict & Prediction

Coming into this match, Orlando will miss Bamba, Fulz and Mozgov, while Iwundu is questionable. On the other side, Payton is questionable for New Orleans Pelicans.

Despite the strong performance from Orlando, they are still considered an underdog by bookmakers. This might seem surprising, but I do believe Pelicans are capable of upsetting Orlando if the stars align. While it might be tempting to bet on Pelicans, the Over/Under market is much more appealing. The line is set at 225.5, which is a bit too high and I'll explain why. Since the trade rumours of Davis, the Pelicans team chemistry has not been good, which can be seen in their games. This alone makes me wonder how good can they perform. On the other side, Orlando have been impressive, but with a tough schedule, we can expect their players to suffer from fatigue. All in all, expect a slow-paced game which should not end with more than 225 points.

Prediction: Under 225.00 points