Pelicans odds vs. Trail Blazers: Home court on the line for New Orleans

The New Orleans Pelicans just completed a successful four-game road trip and return home tonight to take on the tanking Portland Trail Blazers.

Portland has 10 players on their injury report listed as out for tonight and will be running out a lineup of guys most fans have never heard of.

But the Pelicans cannot take them lightly, as they still have a lot at stake even after clinching a play-in spot and eliminating the Lakers.

New Orleans is still just a game ahead of the Spurs (who play Minnesota tonight) and needs to stay ahead of them, as San Antonio owns the tiebreaker.

The 9th seed gets home court advantage in the play-in game, so the Pelicans need to take care of business tonight vs. Portland with games against Memphis and Golden State looming.

The Pels will be heavy favorites at home and it’s a game they should win, but will they cover this giant spread?

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Portland Trail Blazers: Odds, spread, over/under and best bets

According to WynnBET, the Pelicans are whopping 16.5 point favorites tonight at home against the Trail Blazers.

The money lines are set at -2000 for New Orleans and +1000 for Portland so you are going to have to take the points to make any money.

Jonas Valanciunas is questionable tonight and I imagine the Pels wouldn’t mind getting him another game of rest before the final two games.

Even without him, the Pels should be able to cruise, so I like them to cover this one, even though any spread above 15 is always daunting.

The over/under is set at 224 and I like the over. The Pelicans should be able to shut the shorthanded Blazers down, but I think the Pels’ subs are good enough to run up the score if the game gets out of hand.

There could be a lot of young guys on the floor tonight, which means not much defense. I like the Pelicans to win with a final score of around 125-105.

Daily fantasy is hard to gauge, as CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram could end up getting some rest tonight if the Pels can build a big lead.

I would go with Jaxson Hayes, who is coming off a big game, and should get more touches if Valanciunas is out. I could see him and Trey Murphy III being out there for most of the night if the Pelicans are blowing them out, so both would be good low-cost gambles.

How to watch Pelicans vs. Trail Blazers

The game vs. Portland will tip off at 7:00 PM CT and you can watch on Bally Sports New Orleans or listen on ESPN 100.3 FM.