{"id":811821,"date":"2026-08-14T20:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/811821\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T20:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:03:28","slug":"pelicans-get-short-end-of-schedule-stick-with-long-travel-back-to-back-games-crescent-city-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/811821\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans get short end of schedule stick with long travel, back-to-back games \u2013 Crescent City Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Print
\n <\/a>
\n \"Zion\"(Photo: Stephen Lew)<\/p>\n

We should not be surprised that the NBA did not bestow a favorable schedule layout upon the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n

Consider the factors:<\/p>\n

**You are in one of the smallest markets in the league<\/p>\n

**You are with a franchise that has not been competitive<\/p>\n

**You are a team without marquee stars<\/p>\n

**You are a franchise that was 26th of 30 teams in attendance last season<\/p>\n

The release of the Pelicans schedule Thursday revealed the team will travel more than any other in the league in miles logged, according to Bookies.com, which listed the following breakdown:<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season, Bookies.com just ranked all 30 teams by total round-trip air miles based on the newly released regular-season schedule. The full league will cover nearly 1.3 million combined miles this year across five countries.<\/p>\n

The New Orleans 2026-27 travel breakdown:<\/p>\n

Total round-trip miles: 55,581.9<\/p>\n

NBA rank: #1 most traveled in the NBA<\/p>\n

League average: 43,122 miles (meaning the New Orleans Pelicans will travel 12,460 miles above average)<\/p>\n

A primary reason for the significant travel is the two-game European series the Pelicans will play with the defending Western division champion San Antonio Spurs in Paris (Jan. 14) and Manchester, England (Jan. 17).<\/p>\n

Taking those games out of the travel miles places the Pelicans toward the middle of the pack in that category.<\/p>\n

The schedule maker did not do the Pelicans any favors, otherwise.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans are tied for the most back-to-back games to play with 16 of those, constituting 32 games.<\/p>\n

The league average is 14.2 back-to-back games.<\/p>\n

It happens quickly. New Orleans has a pair of back-to-back games in its first five games of the season.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans are also tied for the longest road trip of the season, a seven-game trip in 13 days from Jan. 30-Feb. 10, an Eastern swing for its annual Mardi Gras trip. Mardi Gras falls on Feb. 9, a bit early, in 2027.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the Knicks and Lakers, a pair of marquee franchises, also have seven-game road trips.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans are tied for the fewest number of nationally televised games with two \u2013 and both of those are the games in Europe against the Spurs.<\/p>\n

When you look at the best teams in the league, the marquee brands, there is a different story.<\/p>\n

Denver, with Nikola Jokic, are tied for the fewest back-to-back games with 12 and the Nuggets do not face that for the first time until No. 29-30.<\/p>\n

The Knicks, not surprisingly, are tied for the fewest road back-to-back games with five.<\/p>\n

The Spurs, not surprisingly, have the most rest days with 94.<\/p>\n

The 76ers, with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown in the fold, have the fewest stretches of three games in four nights.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, the schedule for the Pelicans is home-heavy early on, a key factor for a team that has struggled mightily early in the season for many years now and must get off to a good start to establish hope and momentum.<\/p>\n

It is imperative to get off to a good start.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremiah(Photo: Stephen Lew)<\/p>\n

Among its first 13 games, only four will be against teams that reached the playoffs last season.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans open the 2026-27 season with 11 of the first 16 games at home.<\/p>\n

The months of October and November have been simply terrible for the Pelicans for a long time.<\/p>\n

New Orleans has not started any season over .500 through its first 12 games of any season since the 2014-15 season, when the Pelicans opened with a 7-5 record.<\/p>\n

Typically speaking, the Pelicans have improved annually after November, per numbers posted by NBA.com.<\/p>\n

New Orleans monthly records, win percentage since 2020-21:<\/p>\n

October: 9-17, .346
November: 27-51, .346
December: 35-38, .479
January: 32-59, .352
February: 36-33, .522
March: 45-42, .517
April: 18-31, .367
May: 3-6, .333 (Covid-impacted 2020-21 regular season stretched into mid-May)<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Saints always take precedence over the Pelicans any other sports or entertainment entity in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Saints and Pelicans play on the same day four times (Nov. 8, Nov. 29, Dec. 13, Dec. 20), though times of those games are staggered<\/p>\n

Finally, the Pelicans will have to split attention with the general public with important holidays, competing with family gatherings, activities, even worship.<\/p>\n

New Orleans is home for Halloween against the Atlanta Hawks. I would not expect many youngsters in the stands that evening.<\/p>\n

On New Year\u2019s Eve, the Pelicans host Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers at 7 p.m. Perhaps some will attend, rather than watching fireworks.<\/p>\n

You will have to convince your significant other to have a romantic date at Smoothie King Center Feb. 14 as the Pelicans host the Los Angeles Clippers for Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Further complicating that is the fact that Feb. 14 is also Super Bowl Sunday. Fortunately (perhaps not for your significant other) is the fact that the Pelicans game is at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

You can make the Pelicans game and make it home in time to watch the Super Bowl around 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you can convince your date to head to an early Valentine\u2019s Day dinner between the basketball game and the football game!<\/p>\n

With first-year coach Jamahl Mosley, there is newfound optimism that the effort and performance of the team will improve.<\/p>\n

To do so, the Pelicans will have to earn it, based on what is one of the more challenging schedules in the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo: Stephen Lew) We should not be surprised that the NBA did not bestow a favorable schedule layout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-811821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117095655593818783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}