While the Pelicans don’t play on Tuesday night, there could be separation created between them and the other eighth seed contenders by night’s end with a quartet of teams battling for the eighth seed competing on the night.
Conference standings
None of the teams battling for the eighth seed were in action on Monday, thus none of the standings changed from Monday morning.
Games to watch and rooting interests
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Orlando Magic – The two eighth seeds in their respective conferences meet in Tennessee on Monday. As with every game with the Grizzlies the rest of the season, the Pelicans should root for a Memphis loss.
San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks – In an intra-state clash, the Spurs will look to stop their recent slide of five losses in their last seven games. The Spurs are already a game back of the Pelicans and with a loss to the Mavericks that Pelican fans should be rooting for, they could move even further back by the end of the night.
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Phoenix Suns – There’s an argument to be made for rooting interests in both sides of this. The Suns are the team further behind in the standings but the Pelicans don’t hold the series tiebreaker of them (yet) as they do Portland. But Portland still appears to be a greater threat for the eighth seed, so Phoenix should be the rooting interest.
