The first game on Sunday in the NBA is going to be between New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns. The Pelicans are a surprise team this season and they have 17 wins in 25 games which gives them 1st place in the Western Conference. The Suns have 16 wins and 10 losses and currently, they are in 4th position in the standings. In this game, I'm taking the Pelicans.

Both teams met on Friday night and the Pelicans won by 11 points. Zion Williamson had a 35 points performance as he made 13 out of 17 shots. Although it is very tough to win 2 games in a row against the same team, Phoenix shot from the 3-point territory with 50% accuracy. This kind of percentage isn't sustainable because their season average is 38.5%. There's room for improvement for New Orleans because they shot 3-pointers with just 29.6% although their season average is 36.9%.

Phoenix had a 6 game winning streak in November but now they have just 1 win in the last 5 games. The Suns have just 4 wins in 11 road games but they have the best offense away from home in the league (115.8) but they struggle on defense as it is only the 23rd-best (115.5) which gives them the 6th-best net rating (0.3). New Orleans has the 10th-best offense at home (115.5), the 4th-best defense (106.2) and the 6th-best net rating overall (9.3).

We can't forget that the Pelicans have won 6 games in a row and their confidence is sky-high. They have incredible depth as 7 players scores at least 10 points per game. Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones won't play tonight but Jose Alvarado and Trey Murphy have been playing awesome lately. For Phoenix, Devin Booker is questionable while Cameron Johnson will be out for a while.

These teams are trending in different directions of late with the Suns slumping while the Pelicans have been soaring. Phoenix has struggled to slow the opposition recently, giving up at least 122 points in each of their four losses in this recent five-game stretch. That proves problematic in this contest as the Pelicans continue to pour in the points.

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周日NBA的第一场比赛将在新奥尔良鹈鹕队和菲尼克斯太阳队之间进行。鹈鹕本赛季是一支令人惊讶的球队，他们在25场比赛中取得了17场胜利，这使他们在西部排名第一。太阳队取得了16胜10负的战绩，目前在积分榜上排名第四。这场比赛，我选鹈鹕队。

两队在周五晚上相遇，鹈鹕以11分的优势获胜。锡安·威廉姆森全场17投13中，得到35分。虽然对同一支球队连赢两场比赛非常困难，但太阳的三分球命中率高达50%。这样的比例是不可持续的，因为他们赛季平均只有38.5%。黄蜂队还有提高的空间，因为他们的三分球命中率只有29.6%，而他们的赛季平均三分球命中率是36.9%。

菲尼克斯在11月有6连胜，但现在他们在最近5场比赛中只赢了1场。太阳在11场客场比赛中只赢了4场，但他们在客场的进攻(115.8场)是联盟中最好的，但他们在防守上很挣扎，因为他们的防守仅排在第23位(115.5场)，这使得他们的净效率(0.3场)排在第6位。新奥尔良在主场拥有第10好的进攻(115.5分)，第4好的防守(106.2分)和第6好的净评分(9.3分)。

我们不能忘记鹈鹕已经连续赢了6场比赛，他们的信心非常高。他们拥有令人难以置信的深度，有7名球员场均至少得分10分。布兰登·英格拉姆和赫伯·琼斯今晚不会上场，但是何塞·阿尔瓦拉多和特雷·墨菲最近表现非常出色。对于太阳来说，德文·布克是有问题的，而卡梅隆·约翰逊将会缺阵一段时间。

这两支球队最近的趋势不同，太阳队下滑，鹈鹕队飙升。太阳最近一直在努力减缓对手的进攻速度，在最近的五场比赛中，他们输掉了四场比赛，每场至少丢掉122分。这在这场比赛中证明了问题，因为鹈鹕继续在得分。