New Orleans Pelicans schedule lookahead: Ranking this week’s games by level of importance

Charlotte Hornets (22-50) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (33-37) – Thursday, March 23rd @ 8 PM Eastern Standard Time 

On March 8th, it was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Williamson will miss a minimum of two more weeks with the strained hamstring he has been nursing since January 2nd.

At the risk of sounding (incredibly) overly optimistic, if Williamson were to return exactly two weeks after that report, the next game he would theoretically be eligible to suit up for would be this matchup against the Charlotte Hornets.

The Pelicans’ struggles without Williamson this season have been well-documented, so if they could get him back for this game at something close to his usual self, that could single-handedly change this team’s season. This landscape-altering potential could make this game not only the team’s most important of the week, but their most important of the season.

(Sidenote: If the Clippers game ends up being the one Williamson makes his return in, that would be the team’s most important game of the week. This game would probably move all the way down to number three, as revenge over the Rockets becomes a lot more important if you remove the Williamson storyline from this one). 

On a related note, the Pelicans beat the Hornets 124-112 in their only other showdown of the 2022-23 season. This precedent, and the Hornets’ downtrodden status, makes the Pelicans the favorite here, regardless of whether Williamson plays or not.