It doesn’t take a long glance at the standings to know what’s on the line.
No, it’s not quite do-or-die, but it’s awful close.
The New Orleans Pelicans matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder is the most important game of the season to date, and if the past two months of jockeying felt urgent, Game 77 of the season might as well be Game 7 in the playoffs.
At 5 p.m. Sunday in the Smoothie King Center, the stakes are clear.
A win would not only leapfrog the eighth-placed Pelicans ahead of the Thunder in the standings, it would provide the added advantage of jumping a team who it holds a tiebreaker advantage against. Currently, New Orleans owns the tiebreaker against none of its peers in the Western Conference jumble.
