1) New Orleans will face the San Antonio Spurs on Friday (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports, 100.3 FM) at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Southwest Division matchup represents a major swing in the race for a play-in berth, because a New Orleans win gives it a 2.5-game cushion on San Antonio, while a loss reduces that gap to just a half-game (and would mean the Spurs have clinched the tiebreaker, up 3-0 in the season series). Relevant scoreboard watching you may want to track over the rest of Week 22:
Friday
LA Lakers (29-40) at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.
Portland (26-42) at Brooklyn, 6:30 p.m.
Boston at Sacramento (25-46), 9 p.m.
Saturday
LA Lakers at Washington, 6 p.m.
Sunday
Portland at Indiana, 2:30 p.m.
Phoenix at Sacramento, 5 p.m.
San Antonio at Golden State, 7:30 p.m.
2) Check out the Pelicans practice report here and read about how the team remains in control of its playoff fate with these next upcoming games.
3) Spurs radio announcer Bill Schoening joined the “Pelicans Weekly” radio show Thursday on 100.3 FM. Todd Graffagnini sat down with the longtime broadcaster to discuss the remainder of the season for both teams, the Play-In Tournament for the Western Conference, NCAA March Madness and more.
4) Ahead of Friday's matchup between two teams fighting for a Western Conference play-in berth, see the injury report which features a few key names from the Pelicans bench.
5) The latest episode of “The Squad” was released Thursday afternoon. Relive the post All-Star break winning streak and learn about how the Pelicans prepare for gameday. Get to know the players, staff and people behind the scenes of the Pelicans organization.