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Behind the Numbers presented by HUB International: Spurs at Pelicans (11/19/18)

A look at three key numbers related to Monday’s game at the Smoothie King Center between San Antonio and New Orleans (7 p.m. Central, Fox Sports New Orleans, WRNO 99.5 FM):

35: Points needed by Anthony Davis to reach 10,000 in his seven-year NBA career. According to Basketball Reference, Davis is one of five players currently on an NBA roster who is closing in on the 10,000-point plateau, but the others have all been in the league for many more seasons (Charlotte’s Marvin Williams is just 24 points shy, Philadelphia’s J.J. Redick 258, Minnesota’s Derrick Rose 352, Houston’s Eric Gordon 430). If Davis accomplishes that feat Monday vs. San Antonio, he will amass 10,000 in just 424 career regular season games, and at an age of 25 years, 253 days. Coincidentally – or maybe not – Davis has done a significant amount of damage against tonight’s opponent. Among the other 29 NBA franchises, Davis’ most total points have come vs. Dallas (514), but his third-most are against San Antonio (470), with Minnesota (490) in between.

0: Times in New Orleans franchise history the Pelicans have faced a San Antonio team that entered a head-to-head matchup with a losing record. The Spurs avoided the first-ever instance of that Sunday by defeating Golden State 104-92, upping their record this season to 8-7 overall (while dropping the Warriors to 12-6). The pair of Southwest Division teams have met a total of 61 times, with San Antonio holding a major upper hand at 44-17, but New Orleans has been much more successful in recent years. Of those 17 victories by the Crescent City’s NBA franchise over San Antonio, eight have come since the ’14-15 season. The Pelicans are 8-9 against the Spurs during that stretch (meaning they were just 9-35 previously). San Antonio prevailed 109-95 on Nov. 3 in Texas in the first meeting of ’18-19.

3, 27: NBA rankings in pace by New Orleans and San Antonio this season, a contrast in styles of play. The Pelicans are averaging 105.19 possessions per 48 minutes (which is behind only Atlanta and Sacramento, via NBA.com), while the Spurs are the league’s fourth-slowest squad, at a plodding 98.63 (faster than only Indiana, Houston and Memphis). When now-injured point guard Elfrid Payton was in the lineup for New Orleans during the first five games of the regular season, the Pelicans played at an even more rapid clip, 106.80, but like much of the rest of the league, have not maintained their accelerated early-season tempo. Of the league’s top 11 teams in pace, only three currently sport losing records (No. 1 Atlanta is 3-13, No. 6 Washington is 5-11, No. 8 Minnesota is 7-10), and several are off to great starts and/or have exceeded national expectations, such as Sacramento, Milwaukee, the Clippers and Toronto.