1) After New Orleans (4-5) had mostly avoided injuries through the first three-plus weeks of the season – particularly in comparison to the rest of the NBA – there was bad news Tuesday evening on that front. On the official injury report, Lonzo Ball (knee) won’t play tonight vs. the LA Clippers, while Eric Bledsoe (eye) is questionable.
2) Pelicans-Clippers will tip off at 9 p.m. Central, with pregame coverage on Fox Sports New Orleans and 100.3 FM at 8:30. ESPN will broadcast the game nationally.
3) Wednesday’s game was supposed to be the second game of a seven-game New Orleans road trip. Instead it’s the opener. Stan Van Gundy and Pelicans players spoke Monday after the matchup vs. the Mavericks was postponed.
4) Read the latest “24 Seconds” Q&A with Steven Adams, presented by Ibotta.
5) On Western Conference Wednesday, the Pelicans are currently in 12th place, as a few squads have made mini-pushes recently, including four West teams on three-game winning streaks. If the season ended today, the playoff teams would be: Lakers, Utah, Clippers, Phoenix, Portland and Dallas; the play-in teams are Golden State, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Sacramento (wins tiebreaker on 2-0 series lead over Denver). The handful of teams out of the picture would be Denver, New Orleans, Memphis, Houston and Minnesota. Of course, at this exceptionally early stage, only one game separates sixth-place Dallas (5-4) with 11th-place Denver (5-6).