The Western Conference standings are so bunched up that a good week can put you in position to get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and a bad one can put you in 10th place.
So for the eight teams not named the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets that are vying for the postseason, there is no margin for error with a little more than four weeks remaining in the regular season.
I don’t know what’s ultimately going to happen to the New Orleans Pelicans. But this is a team that deserves a bunch of credit.