Assessing Pelicans' Play-in Chances After Dejounte Murray's Ambitious Remarks

The New Orleans Pelicans are in the midst of their best stretch of the season, not only having won three straight games, but also going 8-6 in their last 14 games. Dejounte Murray is back, and the vibes around the team are better than ever. With no incentive to tank because of the fact that they don't control their first-round pick in the draft, the Pelicans will try to win as many games as they can down the stretch. In fact, the team has already begun talking about chasing a Play-In spot. After his season debut on Tuesday, Murray shared a message on social media, setting the goal of getting one of the "last spots in the play-in." But, how realistic is that goal? Can the Pelicans actually make a run and clinch a postseason spot?

The Pelicans are 18-42 and have 22 more games in the regular season. They are ten games behind the No. 10 seed Clippers and 11 games behind the ninth-seeded Blazers. Since New Orleans dug itself a massive hole in the first half of the season, it will certainly be an uphill battle.

Pelicans' Surge May Be Too Little Too Late

Besides the challenge of closing a ten-win difference in 22 games, there are a few more complicating factors against the Pelicans. Per Tankathon's remaining schedule strength metric, the Blazers have the easiest, and the Clippers have the third-easiest remaining schedule in the league. The Pelicans, on the other hand, are 12th on that same list.

The Pelicans have 13 of their remaining 22 games on the road. Considering that they are 7-21 away from home for the season, the Pelicans have to turn things around quickly to climb up the standings.

One advantage New Orleans has down the stretch is that they are more motivated to win than most teams they will face. Wins are easier to come by in the final month of the season as rebuilding teams increase their tanking efforts. Teams that are chasing wins can usually get them on most nights.

The problem is, this will be the case for the Blazers and the Clippers, as well. On paper, they have more talent than the Pelicans when fully healthy. Fortunately for the Pelicans, they are not as healthy as New Orleans right now.

Portland star Deni Avdija is dealing with lingering back concerns and hasn't looked like himself in recent weeks. The Clippers are still without Darius Garland. Kawhi Leonard is also nursing an ankle injury that kept him out of their last game.

This could help the Pelicans win more games than the Clippers and the Blazers down the stretch. Can they win sufficiently more to close the gap, however, is another question.

Let's say a reasonable best-case scenario for the Pelicans is going 16-6 for the rest of the season. This would give them a 34-48 record. This means that the Clippers would have to go 7-17 the rest of the way or the Blazers 5-17, for the Pelicans to catch up.

The Pelicans play the Clippers three times and the Blazers once in March. They have to win all four of those games to even have a shot of doing so.

It is certainly great to see that the Pelicans are still trying, and Murray has the right attitude upon his return. Unfortunately, making the play-in seems nearly impossible for the Pelicans at this point. As long as the team is playing hard and building good habits for the future, however, Pelicans fans won't care too much about being the tenth seed.