1) New Orleans won’t have its second-leading scorer available in its next game. The Pelicans released an injury update Wednesday on Brandon Ingram, who was diagnosed with a left low ankle sprain. An injury report ahead of Friday’s game will be forthcoming this afternoon.
2) Over the three days since the final buzzer sounded Monday, signaling a 15-point home loss to Golden State, the outlook for New Orleans’ Western Conference play-in hopes has shifted relatively significantly. Tenth-place San Antonio (31-34) has lost consecutive games to Utah; combined with a Pelicans win Tuesday over the Warriors, the gap between the teams is now just 1.5 games. San Antonio owns the tiebreaking advantage, but faces one of the NBA’s most challenging schedules over its final seven games. New Orleans (30-36) also has a difficult remaining slate, partly because five of its last six contests are on the road, all against teams vying for playoff seeding or a play-in spot. The Pelicans are 12-19 in away games this season.
3) Further up the West standings, No. 8 Memphis (33-32) moved to 3.5 games in front of New Orleans with a narrow win at Minnesota last night. Ninth-place Golden State (33-33) is three games ahead of the Pelicans. New Orleans has already clinched the tiebreaker vs. Memphis; in terms of Golden State, the tiebreaker will be determined by the winner of a May 14 game in San Francisco between the Pelicans and Warriors.
4) Memphis and Golden State are both in action Thursday, with the Grizzlies visiting Detroit and the Warriors hosting Oklahoma City. The next game for the Pelicans is Friday at Philadelphia, while San Antonio will be on the West Coast later that evening at Sacramento. Due to losing the tiebreaker, the Pelicans need to win two more games than the Spurs over the rest of 2020-21 in order to pass their Southwest Division counterparts in the standings.
5) The Pelicans are practicing Thursday at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center, prior to traveling to Pennsylvania in advance of Friday’s game. Pelicans.com will have live streaming of post-practice media availability.
