The Memphis Grizzlies walked into Monday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans with a spotless 6-0 record and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Oddsmakers also had Memphis favored, leaving the Grizzlies with a chance to stretch their perfect start and stay perfect against the spread through seven games.
That is why the matchup drew attention beyond a routine early-season meeting. Cameron Boozer has been the betting lens on Memphis all along, and his numbers have been hard to ignore: 10.5 rebounds per game through six games, 15.3 rebound chances per game, and 8.5 boards cleared in five of his matchups. He was also the favorite to win the league’s Rookie of the Year award, which has made every possession around the glass feel larger than it would in a normal November game.
New Orleans brought its own layer of urgency. The Pelicans had opened the season 0-4 before winning back-to-back games, including Saturday’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks, and they were still trying to turn that burst into something that could move them toward the play-in mix in the Western Conference. The contrast was stark: Memphis arrived as the team setting the pace, while New Orleans arrived trying to prove its slow start had not already defined the season.
The wrinkle for the Pelicans is that the recent turnaround does not erase the hole they dug before Monday. They had won two straight, but they were still a team that needed proof, not just momentum, and Memphis offered the wrong kind of test for a side trying to climb from the bottom of the standings. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, had spent six games building a record that no one could dismiss as a fluke, and the betting market made it clear that the unbeaten start had earned respect.
For Boozer, the question was simpler and sharper than the larger standings picture: could he keep owning the boards against a Pelicans team that ranked ninth in rebound percentage? Monday was the next chance to find out, and for Memphis it was another shot to show that its opening run could survive the first real stretch of pressure.
