Pelicans at Spurs
The New Orleans Pelicans look to beat the San Antonio Spurs for the third straight time when the Southwest Division rivals square off at the AT&T Center on New Year's Eve. The Pelicans snapped a five-game losing streak to the Spurs with a 100-99 win on Nov. 8 before repeating the feat with a 97-90 victory on Boxing Day. New Orleans is coming off a hard-fought 110-106 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday and hopes to end the calendar year by halting a two-game road skid.
Injuries have taken their toll on San Antonio, which has dropped seven of its last nine to fall five games behind the Memphis Grizzlies at the top of the Southwest Division standings. The Spurs missed an opportunity to gain ground on the Grizzlies as they fell 95-87 to Memphis on Tuesday without Tony Parker (hamstring) and Kawhi Leonard (wrist) in the lineup. It hasn't been a December to remember for the Spurs, who will finish with at least 10 losses in a month for the first time since March 1997.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN New Orleans, FSN Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE PELICANS (16-15): Tyreke Evans scored eight of his game-high 24 points in the final two minutes to propel New Orleans past the Suns and is averaging 25 points and 6.5 rebounds in his last two outings. Anthony Davis added 19 points and a season-high 18 rebounds to finish with his fourth double-double in his last five games. John Salmons missed Tuesday's game for personal reasons and his status for Wednesday is uncertain.
ABOUT THE SPURS (19-14): Marco Belinelli scored 18 points, including four 3-pointers, but the rest of his teammates went a combined 1-of-15 from beyond the arc in the loss to the Grizzlies. Tim Duncan grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points, narrowly missing his 814th career double-double, which would have tied him with Karl Malone for fifth all-time. Parker has missed 10 of the last 13 games while Leonard has sat out the last eight contests and both players are unlikely to be in the lineup on Wednesday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Spurs have won 11 of the last 14 meetings with the Pelicans.
2. New Orleans has held San Antonio to under 100 points in each of the last three matchups.
3. The Spurs have given up 105 or more points in six of their last nine games