The New Orleans Pelicans begin their new era on the court at home on Oct. 30 when the Indiana Pacers come to town, and they’ll go into it wearing these:
Among the highlights of the schedule:
The Pelicans get the Los Angeles Lakers twice, at home on Nov. 8 and in Los Angeles on Nov. 12, in the first two weeks of the season. That could mean games against a team that could be without superstar Kobe Bryant, who is recovering from a torn Achilles’, or at the very least a Kobe Bryant who is somewhat limited.
December looks daunting, including a five-game road swing to visit the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings; road games with the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets; and a home matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies. But, hey, the Pelicans do get Christmas off, so there’s that.
January opens with road games at the Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics, Pacers and Miami Heat.
The Clippers make the first of two visits to the New Orleans Arena on Feb. 24, a homecoming/reunion of sorts, considering former Hornets point guard Chris Paul comes back to town and Doc Rivers coaches against the team that employs his son, Austin Rivers. The Clips other visit to the Big Easy is March 26.
The finishing kick of the season is brutal. Five of New Orleans’ eight April games are on the road and the schedule finishes with road games at the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Rockets followed by return visits from the Thunder and Houston in a six-day span.
Outside of the division in the Western Conference, the Pelicans will get two home games with Golden State and Oklahoma City with just one return trip. However, New Orleans will go to the Lakers and Minnesota twice and get those teams at home just once. They will play four games—two home and two away—against Denver, the Clippers, the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento.
New Orleans will play 19 back-to-backs this season, 10 of them on the road, four with the second game on the road and five with the second night being at home. They have no home-home back-t0-backs.
The Pelicans will make two five-game road trips, the first mentioned earlier. The second is Feb. 26-March 4 with visits to Dallas, Phoenix, the Clippers, Sacramento and the Lakers.
New Orleans drew six nationally televised games, three on ESPN and three on NBA-TV, five on the road. The lone home game is Feb. 7 against the Timberwolves.
Finally, the Pelicans will play three games in four nights on 25 occasions, but have the dreaded four-in-five combination just twice.
For a team that hopes to be in the playoff hunt in 2013-14, those final four games could be vital. If the Pelicans need those games, the hope might have to be that the Thunder and the Rockets have already locked up their seedings and are in rest-for-the-playoffs mode.