1) After going through a busier eight-day stretch than any NBA team will have all season, Week 24 of the schedule for the Pelicans is the exact opposite. New Orleans (43-31) only has two games over the next six days, hosting Portland (45-28) on Tuesday and visiting Cleveland (44-29) on Friday. Of the team’s eight remaining regular season games, six are against opponents that currently sport winning records. An Easter home game vs. Oklahoma City (44-31) is also part of the team's Week 24 schedule, with the NBA's weeks running from Monday to Sunday.
2) Due to the light schedule, there should be a significant amount of scoreboard watching for Pelicans fans over the next six days, starting with Monday’s slate. There are two Monday games relevant to fifth-place New Orleans in the Western Conference race, including ninth-place Denver (40-33) visiting Philadelphia, as well as seventh-place Minnesota (42-32) hosting Memphis. Coincidentally, the Nuggets and Timberwolves play each other twice in the season’s final seven days, which could impact the race in some fashion.
3) New Orleans is assured of entering its Tuesday home game vs. third-place Portland in fifth place in the West, but the Pelicans can move up to fourth automatically by winning. Current No. 4 Oklahoma City (44-31) does not play again until Thursday, when it visits San Antonio, and the Pelicans hold a tiebreaker on OKC based on a season-series clinch. Meanwhile on Tuesday, the sixth-place Spurs (43-31) will be in Washington, two days before hosting the Thunder on TNT.
4) The Pelicans will not practice today, getting in some needed rest after their stretch of playing six games from March 17-24.
5) In case you missed it, the short-handed Pelicans ran out of gas Saturday, as NBA-leading Houston rolled to a 114-91 home win. New Orleans played without Rajon Rondo (wrist) and Nikola Mirotic (hip). Visit Pelicans.com tomorrow for updates on the status of those two key players.