Parity might be dead in the NBA: by Halloween, there are still four undefeated teams and three winless teams. The seven squads without a tally in both columns actually marks the most since 2016-17, when 13 teams were either undefeated or winless, though that season, Halloween fell at an earlier part in the schedule.
One of those winless teams is the New Orleans Pelicans, who will face a tricky test at the Intuit Dome against the LA Clippers in the start of Emirates NBA Cup Group B action. The game will tip off at 10:30 p.m. ET.
The Clippers are 10.5-point favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook (-535 on the Moneyline), and the point total is set to 222.5. The Pelicans are +400 to pull off the upset. Below, I’ll break down both teams’ NBA Cup opener and offer my prediction.
New Orleans Pelicans at LA Clippers preview, prediction
LA sits at 2-2 after a pretty inconsistent start to the season. It started off with arguably the most surprising result of the season so far, a 129-108 demolition at the hands of the Utah Jazz, but it rebounded with back-to-back wins over the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers. The Clippers’ most recent game was arguably their ugliest, as they lost 98-79 to the Golden State Warriors and shot a hideous 36.6% from the field and 18.2% from deep. Kawhi Leonard has had two stinkers by his lofty standards, and Bogdan Bogdanović is just one-for-nine from the field in his two games. LA has missed the offensive spark that Norman Powell, whom it traded to the Miami Heat, provided.
However bad the start to the season has been for the Clippers, it’s been worse for New Orleans, which traded away its unprotected 2026 first-round pick to move up in the draft for center Derik Queen. It’s no slight against Queen, who’s performed solidly in his 21.3 minutes per game, but the Pelicans stand to potentially lose a top-three pick in a draft class that features three stellar prospects in AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cameron Boozer. At least Zion Williamson, who missed New Orleans’ loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday with a foot injury, has no injury designation, but he was ineffective in the Pelicans’ blowout loss against the Denver Nuggets.
Pelicans at Clippers pick, best bet
It doesn’t take a deep dive into the stats to realize why New Orleans is one of three remaining winless teams: it has made just 40.4% of its field goal attempts and 27.9% of its threes, both of which are the worst in the league. It’s not just that, though: the Pelicans have shot the sixth-worst percentage from the free throw line, snagged the seventh-fewest rebounds, dished out the fewest assists, blocked the second-fewest shots, and gotten blocked the most. They have the league’s worst offense and fourth-worst defense, allowing the most rebounds, eighth-most assists, and seventh-most points on the fourth-best field goal percentage. It’s an unmitigated disaster in the Bayou.
Defensively, it hasn’t even been the product of shooting luck. Opponents have only drained 33.0% of their wide-open triples against New Orleans, the the seventh-worst figure in basketball, so if anything, the Pelicans’ defensive metrics might get even worse. New Orleans has allowed the second-highest field goal percentage in the restricted area and the highest percentage from floater range. In large part, that’s a matter of personnel: last season, 241 players played at least 30 games and guarded at least five shots within six feet per game, and Jordan Poole, Trey Murphy III, Jordan Hawkins, and Yves Missi all ranked in the bottom third in opponent field goal percentage. The Pelicans’ horrific long-range shooting should improve somewhat with better luck, given that they’ve made 25.6% of their wide-open triples, but a lineup featuring Missi, Williamson, and Herbert Jones is never going to be a huge threat from deep, especially when none of their bench players except for Saddiq Bey are capable shooters.
LA hasn’t gone into the paint much, but when it has, it has been effective. The Clippers rank third-to-last in restricted area shot attempts, but they’ve converted them at a league-best 80.6% clip, continuing a trend that started last season after Leonard’s return from injury. LA should be able to control the glass tonight, given that Ivica Zubac had 10 or more rebounds in each of the teams’ three matchups in 2024-25. However, it does need to create better opportunities from deep, given that it’s attempted the sixth-fewest wide open threes this season. The Clippers also need to do a better job getting fouled against one of the league’s most-disciplined teams, since they’ve attempted the fewest free throws per game this season after ranking near the middle of the pack in that category in 2024-25.
LA also hasn’t gotten off to such a hot start on defense, as it currently ranks 13th in defensive rating after having the third-best unit last season. The Clippers had focused on that side of the ball in the offseason, trading away defensively-limited Norman Powell and bringing in an elite rim protector to back up Zubac in Brook Lopez, but so far, the moves haven’t paid dividends. In part, that can be attributed to shooting luck: opponents have hit 42.4% of their wide-open triples against LA, though the Clippers could help themselves by not allowing the sixth-most unguarded attempts in the league. They could also stand to be much stingier in the paint; Zubac, who finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season, has graded out negatively by defensive box plus-minus so far.
Still, LA’s issues more reflect the latent chemistry that the team has yet to develop after making several moves during the offseason, while New Orleans’ problems are structural. The Clippers should still win this one, but it’ll be a high-scoring affair.
