A look at three key numbers related to Sunday’s game at the Smoothie King Center between Chicago and New Orleans (5 p.m., Fox Sports New Orleans, WRNO 99.5 FM):
6: New Orleans rank among the 30 NBA teams in defensive efficiency over the course of the entire 2016-17 regular season, 76 games into the slate (104.1 points allowed per 100 possessions). As NBA.com writer John Schuhmann pointed out last week in his power-rankings column, the Pelicans are the most improved defense in the league compared to 2015-16, when they ranked just 28th (107.3 points allowed per 100 possessions).