Pelicans schedule: New Orleans in driver’s seat in race with Lakers

The New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers started the day in a tie for the 9th seed in the Western Conference.

As we have discussed, getting the 9th seed is vitally important for the Pelicans, as it would increase their chances of keeping the 2022 NBA Draft pick they are owed from the Lakers, as it goes to Memphis if it falls outside of the top-10.

Both the Pels and Lakers are playing without their leading scorers, as Brandon Ingram is still out with a hamstring and LeBron James sat out the last game for the Lakers with knee soreness, though both are expected to play in Sunday’s matchup.

Both teams have nine games remaining, two of them head-to-head, so who has the advantage down the home stretch of the season?

The numbers say it is the New Orleans Pelicans, as they have the 26th most-difficult remaining schedule in the NBA and the Lakers have the 2nd.

Pelicans schedule: The Pels control their destiny against LA

The Pelicans can make things easier on themselves by winning the two head-to-head matchups against the Los Angeles Lakers, but even if they don’t they will still have a chance to claim the 9th seed just based on schedule. Here are the nine games the Pelicans have remaining:

• Spurs
• Lakers
• @Trail Blazers
• @Lakers
• @Clippers
• @Kings
• Trail Blazers
• @Grizzlies
• Warriors

The Pelicans have winnable games against the Spurs, Trail Blazers (2) and Kings, and could get lucky and catch both the Grizzlies and Warriors resting players in the final games. If the Pelicans can split with the Lakers, it’s easy to see them going 5-4 in the final nine games.

Here are the Lakers’ final nine games:

• @Pelicans
• @Mavericks
• @Jazz
• Pelicans
• Nuggets
• @Suns
• @Warriors
• Thunder
• @Nuggets

The Lakers have winnable games against the Pelicans and Thunder but otherwise will be underdogs in all of the rest of their games.

Of course, games are not won on paper, and the Lakers have this guy called LeBron James who is pretty good at stepping up when it matters, so there are no guarantees of anything.

But it’s easy to see a scenario where the Lakers lose five or six of their final games, though they did show some signs of life without LeBron in the recent loss to the 76ers and are 2-2 over their last four games.

The Pelicans’ play-in hopes and 2022 NBA Draft are riding on these last nine games and it is crucial that New Orleans not let up against the teams they should beat.