Who’s Playing
Boston Celtics @ New Orleans Pelicans
Current Records: Boston 33-15, New Orleans 12-36
How To Watch
- When: Friday, January 31, 2025 at 8 p.m. ET
- Where: Smoothie King Center — New Orleans, Louisiana
- TV: Gulf Coast Sports
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
- Ticket Cost: $11.80
What to Know
The Celtics will be playing the full four quarters on Friday, but they’re expected to have things wrapped up well before that. They will head out on the road to challenge the New Orleans Pelicans at 8:00 p.m. ET at Smoothie King Center. The Celtics’ defense has only allowed 108.3 points per game this season, so the Pelicans’ offense will have their work cut out for them.
The Celtics will head into Wednesday’s match on the come-up: they were handed a two-point loss in their last contest, but they sure didn’t let that happen against the Bulls on Wednesday. The Celtics put the hurt on the Bulls with a sharp 122-100 win. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Boston had established a 20 point advantage.
Kristaps Porzingis was nothing short of spectacular: he shot 8-for-14 from beyond the arc and dropped a double-double on 34 points and 11 rebounds. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in threes (eight). Another player making a difference was Jaylen Brown, who went 10 for 18 en route to 28 points plus six assists and six rebounds.
Even though they won, the Celtics struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only five offensive rebounds. That’s the fewest offensive rebounds they’ve posted since back in November of 2024.
Meanwhile, the Pelicans’ recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Wednesday after their fourth straight defeat. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 137-136 to the Mavericks. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
The loss doesn’t tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Trey Murphy III, who went 13 for 17 en route to 32 points plus six rebounds. He had some trouble finding his footing against the Raptors on Monday, so this was a nice turnaround. The team also got some help courtesy of Zion Williamson, who went 11 for 18 en route to 29 points plus seven assists and six rebounds.
Boston’s victory bumped their record up to 33-15. As for New Orleans, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-36.
The Celtics barely slipped by the Pelicans when the teams last played on January 12th, winning 120-119. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Celtics since the team won’t have the home-court advantage this time around. We’ll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Odds
Boston is a big 11-point favorite against New Orleans, according to the latest NBA odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Celtics as a 10.5-point favorite.
The over/under is 232 points.
See NBA picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.
Series History
Boston has won 7 out of their last 10 games against New Orleans.
- Jan 12, 2025 – Boston 120 vs. New Orleans 119
- Mar 30, 2024 – Boston 104 vs. New Orleans 92
- Jan 29, 2024 – Boston 118 vs. New Orleans 112
- Jan 11, 2023 – Boston 125 vs. New Orleans 114
- Nov 18, 2022 – Boston 117 vs. New Orleans 109
- Jan 29, 2022 – Boston 107 vs. New Orleans 97
- Jan 17, 2022 – Boston 104 vs. New Orleans 92
- Mar 29, 2021 – New Orleans 115 vs. Boston 109
- Feb 21, 2021 – New Orleans 120 vs. Boston 115
- Jan 26, 2020 – New Orleans 123 vs. Boston 108
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