When does the regular season end for the New Orleans Pelicans?
By Mat Issa
The 2022-23 NBA regular season only has three weeks left in its story. And unlike the start of the year – where not every team has their first game on the same day – every team ends their regular season on the same date. That day is 21 days from now, on Sunday, April 9th.
For the New Orleans Pelicans, their final game will actually be a rare road afternoon game (3:30 PM Eastern Standard Time) against the Minnesota Timberwolves – a team that, much like them, is fighting for their playoff lives in the deeply-competitive Western Conference.
Until then, the Pelicans have ten other games remaining (so 11 total when you add in the season finally), with six of those being at home and four being on the road. All four of those road games are part of a road trip from Saturday, March 25th, through Thursday, March 30th.
The Pelicans’ final home game of the season will be played on Friday, April 7th against the New York Knicks.
As it stands, New Orleans is currently a half game outside of the tenth seed in the Western Conference standings. If the team can’t manage to make up that difference, the game against the Timberwolves will be the last game they play of the season altogether.
If they can’t manage to place in sixth place or higher (they are currently two games out from that spot), the team will have to participate in the NBA Play-In Tournament from Tuesday, April 11th to Friday, April 14th (we explain the specifics of how the play-in tournament works in this post here).
If they do manage to secure a top-6 seed in the conference, or emerge from the play-in tournament victorious, they will participate in the NBA Playoffs, which begins on Saturday, April 15th.
From there, here are some other important dates to remember:
Conference Semifinals – Monday, May 1st/Tuesday, May 2nd
Conference Finals – Tuesday, May 16th/Wednesday, May 17th
NBA Draft Lottery – Tuesday, May 16th
NBA Finals – Thursday, June 1st
NBA Draft – Thursday, June 22nd
NBA Free Agency – Friday, June 30th
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