The New Orleans Pelicans make the trip to Oklahoma City for their opening game of their seven-game series against the host Thunder. New Orleans earned the eight-seed as they downed Sacramento 105 to 98 Friday night at home, covering the line as a 1.5-point favorite. Oklahoma City clinched the top seed in the West by crushing Dallas 135 to 86 at home last Sunday in their regular season finale, covering as a -19.5-point favorite. The Pelicans are 13th in the league in scoring offense averaging 115.1 points per game on the season. The Pelicans are 8th in the league in scoring defense allowing an average of 110.7 points per game. The Thunder are 3rd in the league in scoring offense averaging 120.1 points per game on the year. The Thunder are 11th in the league in scoring defense allowing an average of 112.7 points per game this season. The Pelicans will be without Zion Williamson for at least the first four games of this series and maybe more. They did bounce back after losing Williamson and defeat the Kings to advance to this series. This is a different animal and without Williamson the job gets much tougher. The Thunder likes to play fast and score on the break. When teams have had success against them, they have done so by dominating on the glass. That is not likely to happen tonight without Williamson. The TPR Index projects a point advantage of 13.34 points. The MM projects a point differential of +5.76 in the current line range. The Pace-Tempo Matrix has an offensive-defensive differential of 5.04 with a transitional average of 43.82 and a projected conversion rate range of 48.3 to 50.6 percent. The SIM Matrix has the Oklahoma State Thunder with a 73.98 percent advantage against the spread in this contest. Play AGAINST NBA road underdogs in this price range facing a team with a win percentage of .667 and coming off a SU win as a home favorite while going Under in their last game, 42-67-2 ATS. Play ON NBA favorites coming off an ATS win as a favorite in their last game in which their opponent shot less than thirty-five percent from the field, 71-39-2 ATS (65%). We are going to lay the chalk with the host Thunder as they get an important Game One victory over an overmatched Pelicans team Sunday night.