New Orleans Pelicans schedule lookahead: Ranking Week 24’s games by level of importance
By Mat Issa
Los Angeles Clippers (39-36) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (37-37) – Saturday, April 1st @ 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
There’s a chance that the Pelicans don’t need the play-in tournament to clinch a playoff seed. They are only 1.5 games away from the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, who, coincidentally, are their opponent this week.
Theoretically, if the Pelicans and Clippers are the same distance from each other in the standings when they meet on Saturday, and New Orleans wins, there would only be a half-game separating the two teams. Depending on where everyone else is, this could give the Pelicans a very real chance of clinching a top-six seed and avoiding the variability of the play-in tournament altogether.
It isn’t their most important game of the week because they have already clinched the tiebreaker against this team, beating them in both of their first two matchups. Plus, this game takes place on the second leg of a back-to-back for the Clippers, so there is a shot that Kawhi Leonard might not play at all (part of his load management plan requires sitting out the second game of back-to-backs). To make matters worse for the Clippers, they might be without Paul George for that game as well.
Leonard and George’s potential absences would make the matchup much more favorable for the Pelicans and, in turn, also make it a bit less important (at least relative to the most important game of the week).