Free Picks: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Washington Wizards

With a whole platoon of seven Wizards players unlikely to play because of lingering health and safety protocol problems with the team, the Pelicans have been served up the perfect bounce back opportunity on a glistening silver platter—but can the young unit take advantage? It would be hard to imagine New Orleans playing worse than they have been over the past two weeks, especially the road trip they just finished up, during which they went 1-5.

Luckily, the young team is back at home on Wednesday night and they’ve had two full days of rest to figure some things out while the Wiz finished their last game last 11pm on Tuesday and then had to fly from Houston to New Orleans. Not to mention that they will probably be without the same seven against the Pelicans that they so missed against the Rockets on Tuesday night.

The Pelicans have been a pretty good team when they have that rest advantage, putting up a 12-9-2 record against the spread in those situations last season while also going 8-4 when they had two or three days rest. The Pels have also played just five of their 15 games at home this season, so the upcoming five-game homestand should settle them into a comfortable rhythm starting against the Wizards on Wednesday. Because of the uncertainties surrounding some of Washington’s players, we’ll play it safe here with an alternate NBA point spread play, taking the Pelicans by -4.5 points at -192 odds on 22Bet.

Another of our top picks for this tilt is a player points prop for the youngster Zion Williamson. Williamson shot just 38 percent from the field in his worst game of the season last time out, but the second-year man is in the perfect spot to bounce against a Wizards team that is sorely lacking in frontcourt size and paint defense.

We all know Williamson lives to score in the paint, and the Wiz just allowed the Rockets to score 40 percent of their 107 points in the painted area on Tuesday night. Not to mention the fact that Washington just signed Alex Len to soak up paint minutes after the seven-footer was cut by the Toronto Raptors, who have a center crisis of their own. Expect the explosive Zion to put up big numbers as he dominates down low and take the over on his 24.5 points prop at -120 on 22Bet.

Most of the time we’ll leave it at three picks, but after watching the end of Washington’s game against the Rockets on Tuesday night, it’s hard not to think that Bradley Beal is going to have a big showing the next time he gets out on the court on Wednesday night in New Orleans. He lost to his old running mate John Wall while shooting 43 percent from the field and was visibly dejected on the sideline at the end of the game, shaking his head in disgust.

While the uncertainties around the availability of many of his teammates mean there aren’t odds up for any player prop markets for the Wizards as of this writing, you can lock Beal in to come out with some fire on Wednesday and cover the over on his points prop as long as the number is at 35 or under.

• Bradley Beal has averaged 40.0 points in 3 games following nights where he shot under 45%
• Washington is 2-7 ATS in their last 9 vs. the Western Conference
• Washington is 3-3 ATS in their last 6 as an away underdog
• New Orleans is 13-6 SU in their last 19 games vs. the Eastern Conference