It’s going to be an uphill battle for the New Orleans Pelicans to make the play-in tournament this season and their upcoming schedule won’t help.
If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the NBA didn’t like New Orleans, as they have been bumped from several national TV spots (not surprising given that Zion Williamson is out) and have had some quirky stretches in their schedule.
The whole month of January has been brutal, but this last bit has me scratching my head and wondering what the league was thinking when they planned this all out.
If the Pels can just survive January they have a good chance, as the schedule will lighten up a bit in February and give them an opportunity to gain some ground.
But these next nine days are going to be tough for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The New Orleans Pelicans schedule gets weird
The Pelicans last game was on January 20th, so they will be playing tonight after a full three days rest, which is pretty rare at this time of the season.
You can see why when you look at what comes next.
- Monday: Home vs. the Pacers
- Tuesday: @Philly
- Off
- Off
- Friday: Home vs. Nuggets
- Saturday: Home vs. Celtics
- Off
- Monday: @Detroit
- Tuesday: @Nuggets
If you are counting, that is six games in nine days for the Pelicans with three back-to-backs. Yes, they will get two days off in between the first two sets but then have to fly to Detroit after the off day and then all the way to Denver for a game the next day.
Was this really the only way to do this? I get that every team has some number of back-to-back games but piling three such events in a row with travel between them just seems ridiculous.
This makes tonight’s game against the Pacers pretty much a must-win, as the Pels will go on the road tomorrow to face a tough 76ers team.
The Nuggets and Celtics both have losing records on the road, so hopefully the Pels can at least split those, as New Orleans has been good of late at the Smoothie King Center.
The Pistons aren’t good but they are feisty at home and will give everything they have, so that one won’t be a cake walk before the Pels have to fly out to Denver and try to play the Nuggets at altitude for the second game of a back-to-back.
If the New Orleans Pelicans can win three of these games I’d be happy, but it won’t be easy, as this schedule is stacked against them.