New Orleans Pelicans: 5 reasons the Pels will make the playoffs

2. Schedule difficulty — for the Pelicans AND the Grizzlies

The debate between Grizz and Pelicans fans was once again ignited following the NBA’s schedule release on Friday night.

Prior to the NBA finalizing it’s plan for the season to restart, a noticeable amount of Memphis fans were visibly upset at the proposed format. A “we earned the 8th spot in March when a little less than 20 games remained” attitude crept to the forefront of Grizzlies Twitter.

Now increase that level of pettiness up about 10 levels.

The Grizzlies have one of the toughest schedules remaining, meanwhile New Orleans, by win percentage, have the easiest.

Here’s the thing for those who claim the league simply wants the Pels in the playoffs:

This was going to be the case had the season been postponed or not.

As of March 11, the only teams with winning records the Pelicans had left to face were the Jazz, Clippers, and 76ers.

Memphis would be set up to take on the Jazz, Thunder three times, Bucks, Celtics, Raptors twice, Mavericks, Nuggets, 76ers and Rockets. Of whom all have won 40+ games so far this season.  Not to mention the Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard and the Pelicans twice.

The updated schedule does reflect what the season would have looked like otherwise.

With the Trail Blazers also still in the way of the Pels for the 8 and 9 seed, it won’t be easy.

But it’s still possible.