It’s been 10 years since New Orleans and New York reached the NBA playoffs in the same spring, making Wednesday’s meeting in the Crescent City a rare consequential late-season matchup between franchises representing the Big Easy and Big Apple. The interconference clubs will actually play each other twice over the next five days, squaring off again Sunday at Madison Square Garden in front of a national TV audience.
Speaking of Pelicans-Knicks rarities, Zion Williamson has never played against New York in his brief NBA career. If it also seems like it’s been a while since the Knicks ventured into the Smoothie King Center, there is a good reason for that – their last visit was in November 2018.