The Pelicans have made the playoffs despite one wildly turbulent season

The New Orleans Pelicans secured just their second playoff appearance since renaming themselves in 2013, this one being secured with a 113-100 win over the Clippers late Monday night. Their return to the postseason was rough and full of adversity, but they will fight an uphill battle against whoever they face in the first round of the playoffs.

The Pelicans’ celebratory moment came midway through the third quarter, when Rajon Rondo boldly threw a pass off the backboard, a pass Anthony Davis caught with one hand and smashed through the rim.

It was the second of three alley-oops from Rondo to Davis in the third quarter alone.

It also wasn’t supposed to be this way.

The Western Conference has been a dogfight all season long, and if you asked Pelicans fans at different points in the season, they’d be lukewarm at best about their team’s chances at making the playoffs. Somehow, New Orleans was able to squeeze itself into the picture. Here’s what the Pelicans had to deal with all year long.

Preseason games are generally meaningless. That is, of course, unless your starting point guard goes down with a groin injury.

That’s actually exactly what happened to Rajon Rondo, who left with a groin injury just seven minutes into a preseason game against the Thunder. It turned out the injury was more severe than most thought, and Rondo needed surgery to repair a muscle in his core. He missed the first 13 games of the regular season and didn’t really hit his rhythm until December.

The Pelicans were finding their stride. Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins were figuring out ways to win basketball games with two dominant big men sharing a floor with limited shooting to help space the court for them. They were 27-21, winners of seven of their last 10 games.

Then it happened. DeMarcus Cousins came up limping after fighting for a loose ball. He couldn’t put weight on his left foot and eventually fell to the ground. The diagnosis was the worst: A ruptured Achilles ended his first full season in New Orleans.

At first, the Pelicans spiraled. They lost five of their next six games. And then, something remarkable happened.

New Orleans won three in a row heading into the all-star break. Then, they just refused to stop losing. The Pelicans extended their winning streak to 10 games, and Davis was absolutely unstoppable in each of them.

He scored 38 or more points seven times in the month of February, including a 53-point barrage against the Phoenix Suns. In total, The Brow averaged 38 points and 13 rebounds during New Orleans’ 10-game streak. He also gained admission to a club only Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Moses Malone have partied at before.

Davis even fooled us all with a fake video of him cutting his unibrow. CUTTING HIS UNIBROW!

We probably should have known better.

Since the Pelicans rattled off 10 straight wins, they’ve lost four out of five, won four, lost four, and with their win over the Clippers, have won four in a row to secure their first playoff appearance since 2015. That sequence best defines New Orleans’ season: an up-and-down, turbulent, winding road that’s led to the playoffs.

Whether they get out of the first round remains to be seen. Much of the playoff picture is about matchups and there’s still a chance New Orleans somehow sneaks its way into home court advantage if the right teams lose the wrong games.

But for now, the Pelicans can rejoice that their season — trials and tribulations, successes and failures — will not end after 82 games. That’s something they should be happy about.