New Orleans Pelicans vs. Sacramento Kings: Another Must-Win
By Tim Burke
The New Orleans Pelicans have an opportunity to keep their hopes alive and end the Kings’.
After a must needed win versus Memphis two days ago, the New Orleans Pelicans have put themselves back into the chase for the ninth seed. That win dragged the Grizzlies back into the fray as they’ve lost all four of their games so far.
The bunching up effect around the eighth and ninth seeds will increase the drama in the remaining five seeding games. The Grizzlies are still holding on to the eighth seed but all five of the extra Western Conference teams are within four games of Memphis, theoretically, everyone is still alive.
light. Related Story. Things to Watch Against the Sacramento Kings
This matchup against Sacramento allows New Orleans to squash the Kings’ chances of making a late run and vault themselves into the play-in game.
These teams were set to play when the NBA suspended the season what feels like a decade ago.
We’ll all remember where we were on March 11th and 12th, 2020, those two days brought about the end of the sports calendar at the time and kicked off the quarantine period that we failed by not having a clear standard and plan across the country.
Those two days in March seem like a blur to me, just non-stop news coming from all different outlets, none of it good. I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be an NBA player or traveling party member who was away from their family when we finally realized COVID-19 was going to be a problem.
That’s just the recent history between these teams. There are a few other storylines to keep an eye on. We have the Lonzo Ball vs De’Aaron Fox battle and Buddy Hield against the team that drafted him.
As of this writing, 5 AM on game day, the Pelicans are 4.5 point favorites according to ActionNetwork over the Kings. That’s a healthy margin for New Orleans and it shows the faith the public has in the birds, 76% of people have placed bets on the Pelicans side.
If the bets keep coming that line will move even more.
Let’s take a look at their previous game and the key matchups for Pelicans vs. Kings.