Pelica Debrief
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New Orleans Pelicans Schedule: Sectioned and Quartered

By Christopher Dodson

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 17: Kyrie Irving #2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the mascot of the New Orleans Pelicans during the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge as part of 2017 All-Star Weekend at the Smoothie King Center on February 17, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 17: Kyrie Irving #2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the mascot of the New Orleans Pelicans during the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge as part of 2017 All-Star Weekend at the Smoothie King Center on February 17, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The New Orleans Pelicans schedule has been released. Below is the schedule, sectioned and quartered through the NBA months.

Dissecting the New Orleans Pelicans offseason roster moves has taken up most of the last month. The NBA season is around the corner, with the schedules being released, media days planned and training camps all but starting. Here, the schedule is the focus.

Ten of the Pelicans first 18 games will be against last year’s playoff teams. The Pelicans rough starts were always due to extraordinary circumstances, and last year’s squad showed a toughness and resolve that is evidence of maturity.

Only the games against the Brookyln Nets, Chicago Bulls, and Sacramento Kings seem likely as wins based on talent alone through mid November, unless you count the game on November 1st in Portland.

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Assumptions can be made that the Portland Trail Blazers, and the crowd, will be hyped. Thursday night game on TNT tends to bring out the crowds.

The rest of the games will be more evenly matched, calm contests. Every other game is against teams trying to build playoff teams if not outright contenders. Four out of five to open the season helps to balance the scales on the degree of difficulty, though directly after that stretch is a five-game road trip through western contenders.

Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis have always been outstanding athletic players. The nuances of experienced professionalism are starting to show. The first televised game is the opener on ESPN in Houston. It was in Houston that Boogie went down in a Pelicans win. The new-look Pels get an early chance to show Dell Demps choose correctly this offseason.

It also would not hurt to win a season-opening game. The last New Orleans win to open a season came right after the 2014 World Cup. Maybe the soccer link goes further than just doppelgangers.  

While the opening quarter of the season is tough and the new Pelicans roster will experience some growing pains, this year’s schedule does have some benefits over last year’s. The Pelicans square off versus the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers only three times this year. All but the Warriors could realistically face the same fight for the eighth seed as last season.

December is a month’s long gift if the Pelicans can take advantage. Last season, New Orleans played .500 ball save for one ten-game run. Stringing wins together throughout the season is paramount to not being in a late-season battle for the last spot. The longest road trip is five games but features several teams not looking to win urgently. Oh, and LeBron James once.

Related Story. Regular season schedule released. light

LeBron will make his Lakers in NOLA debut February 23, right before the Mardi Gras road trip.

Seven of the last 10 games come against either the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, or Orlando Magic. Each of those teams will likely have shut down or traded away most players that could threaten the Pelicans with a loss.

The Pelicans have a couple road trips of five games and two four-game road trips. The standard Mardi Gras trip was expected.  While only having one five-game home-stand and one four-game homestand.

The Pelicans face either the Lakers or a playoff team in nine out of 13 games in the second of a back-to-back game days. Games against the Denver Nuggets, with a couple at altitude, come on the back of two in two days, or in the last of a 3-in-4 games segment.

One suggestion to the coaching staff, even though Denver expects a playoff spot. Play the kids, bet the under, give the points, don’t risk injury. The Pelicans with Jrue and AD can run most teams off the court, unless someone is on crutches. Divide the season up. The season’s goal’s cannot be accomplished in a game unless the Pelicans mismanage the schedule so badly it comes down to the final game.

Boogie’s return will come on April 9th. Both teams will hope to have their playoff seeds locked up. 1st and 3rd perhaps?

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Coming on the last day of the season, with the Pelicans likely a better team this year than last, Boogie’s return could be much adieu about nothing. Or it could be a playoff preview of an intense series to come, if the Pelicans are battling for the last two seeds.

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