ASA play on: UNDER 218.5 New Orleans Pelicans @ Dallas Mavericks, 8:35PM ET

In our humble opinion the Pelicans made a horrible hire in the offseason of Stan Van Gundy as their coach as he doesn’t fit the makeup of their current young roster. It’s not that Van Gundy isn’t a great coach, it’s the fact his system is wrong for these players. The Pelicans have focused a lot of their energy on the defensive end of the court and slowing the pace of play offensively. New Orleans is currently 5th in defensive efficiency this season allowing just 1.069 points per possession. The Pelicans are also playing much slower with the 7th slowest pace in the NBA and have the 9th worst offensive efficiency rating in the league. Dallas is very similar in those same categories and are perceived as a high scoring fast paced team but the reality is they are not. The Mavs are 19th in scoring at 110PPG and 25th in pace of play at 98.2 possessions per game. Dallas has been much better on the defensive end of the floor this season with the 4th best overall defensive efficiency rating in the NBA allowing just 1.063PPP. Dallas has played Under the total in 4 straight home games while New Orleans has stayed Under 4 straight road games. The value bet here is Under.