Italo Araujo, Curtis Blair and Eric Dalen were listed as the three referees for Pelicans Vs Heat on October 8, 2026. That assignment gave the matchup a defined officiating crew before tipoff, even as such schedules are usually released only a few hours before game time.
For readers checking Pelicans vs Heat now, the timing is the reason the listing matters. Referee assignments often surface close to game time, so seeing the crew identified ahead of schedule offers one of the few concrete details attached to this NBA game.
The information is sparse by design. Covers.com posted a game overview page that carried little beyond the officiating note, which makes the referee listing the central fact available for the matchup. In that note, Araujo is one of three names attached to the game, alongside Blair and Dalen.
That also leaves the obvious gap: a listed crew is not the same as a final one. The schedule can still be updated a few hours before game time, and there is no confirmed change yet. For now, the only verified takeaway is that the Pelicans and Heat were set to have Araujo, Blair and Dalen on the floor when the game was scheduled for October 8, 2026.
