Pelicans Face Dallas On The Road Against Mavericks Without All-Star Luka Doncic

The New Orleans Pelicans travel to Dallas to battle the Mavericks on Saturday evening at the American Airlines Arena. Both teams currently have a 23-16 record after New Orleans fell to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.

The loss snapped the Pelicans' seven-game road winning streak, one shy of tying a franchise record. Playing in Dallas has not been kind to New Orleans lately.

Dallas has beaten the Pelicans eight of the last ten times at home. The teams have played 80 regular season games in both franchises' history, with the Mavericks holding a 53-27 advantage.

New Orleans catches a break with the Mavs All-NBA guard Luka Doncic out with a right ankle sprain. Doncic is second in the NBA in scoring, averaging 33.6 points per game. In his absence, New Orleans expects to get a heavy workload from Dallas guard Kyrie Irving.

Irving averages 24.8 points a contest but recently scored 44 points against the New York Knicks, with Luka sidelined with injury. The Mavs average 118.8 points per contest, good for No. 7 in the league. Dallas shoots a ton of three-point shots per game. They average 41.1 attempts from beyond the arc and make 15.2 a game, both No. 2 in the NBA. That plays into a strength of the Pelicans defensively. New Orleans gives up the sixth-least three-point percentage in the league.

A weakness of the Dallas defense is their interior defense. They rank No. 24 in opponent points in the paint, giving up 53.2 points. Zion Williamson is coming off a 30-point game against the defending champion Denver Nuggets. 18 of those points came in the fourth quarter, where Williamson displayed his size and power in overmatching the Nuggets in the final period.

Williamson, along with Jonas Valanciunas, form a formidable interior tandem. Valanciunas leads the team with 20 double-doubles on the year. New Orleans should be able to exploit the lack of size for the Mavs. The Pelicans also need to get forward Brandon Ingram on track offensively. Ingram has not scored 20 points in a game since December 31 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Ingram has scored 20+ points in both matchups this year versus Dallas, so the matchup has been favorable for B.I.

Despite the loss to Denver on Friday, the Pelicans have the second most road wins in the Western Conference. New Orleans is just 2-3 on the second game of a back-to-back. After Saturday's game, the Pelicans remain in Dallas to play the Mavericks once again on Monday. New Orleans will return home to play the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.