Zion Williamson was playing the best basketball of his pro career, scoring 40 points in his NBA postseason debut Tuesday, as well as 31 points on April 11 during New Orleans’ fifth straight win over Sacramento of 2023-24. The Pelicans won’t have the two-time All-Star power forward on the floor Friday in their sixth meeting with the Kings due to a hamstring injury, instead needing to rely on some of what’s made them effective in previous instances when the 23-year-old was sidelined. New Orleans went 7-5 in the dozen regular season games Williamson missed, including wins at Cleveland, Dallas and Sacramento (the latter a 33-point rout on Jan. 7).
“It was tough news for sure,” third-year Pelicans head coach Willie Green said of Williamson being injured and a DNP for Friday’s Western Conference play-in elimination game vs. Sacramento. “He’s upset. Disappointed. No way around it. It was tough news. We are all rallying around him, and going to support him as best as we can.”
Green gathered the Pelicans at Thursday’s practice and discussed the team’s ability to still reach the West playoffs (and earn a date vs. No. 1 seed Oklahoma City).
“The message to the team is we’ve faced adversity before, and here it is again, staring us right in the eyes,” Green said. “This is an opportunity we can take advantage of.”
New Orleans went 25-16 in the regular season with its primary starting lineup intact, but also had excellent results with exactly one starter out of the mix (Trey Murphy was 15-8 as a fill-in starter, for example).
Willie Green talks Zion Williamson's injury, Play-In Tournament game | Pelicans Practice 4/18/24
New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green's post-practice interview from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Thursday, April 18 ahead of their game against the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament during the 2023-24 NBA season.
Jose Alvarado talks his status, matchup against Sacramento Kings | Pelicans Practice 4/18/24
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado's post-practice interview from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Thursday, April 18 ahead of their game against the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament during the 2023-24 NBA season.
Larry Nance Jr. talks Zion Williamson injury, game vs Sacramento Kings | Pelicans Practice 4/18/24
New Orleans Pelicans forward/center Larry Nance Jr.'s post-practice interview from the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Thursday, April 18 ahead of their game against the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament during the 2023-24 NBA season.
Other notes from Thursday’s practice:
There will be significant discussion about NOLA’s 5-0 record vs. Sacramento entering Friday’s matchup, but Green said of those results, “Right now we have to block that out. Yes, we’ll watch some tape on them. We have a recipe of what we believe allowed us to be successful, but this is going to be a different game. We have to embrace that. I’m extremely excited about the opportunity we’ve given ourselves.”
Pelicans center Larry Nance Jr. on the team’s outlook given its success vs. Sacramento: “There’s a difference between confidence and cockiness. We’re going to go into (Friday) confident, because we deserve to and earned the right to go in confident. But we ain’t going in cocky. We recognize where we’re at – we just lost two (games) to the Lakers on our homecourt. I don’t know if it’s ever been done, beating a team six times. It’s something we know is not going to be easy or a walk in the park.” …
Green on Brandon Ingram, who will be playing his third game Friday since returning from a knee injury: “He had a great practice today, came in early (yesterday) to get some work in. He’s knocking off some rust. He’s been out four weeks or so. He looked great today. He’s playing with force, had a really good practice, sharp, and we look forward to him getting back on the floor tomorrow and getting after it.”
Point guard Jose Alvarado on Ingram: “He’s ready. If we win that game (Friday), it’s going to because of him.” …
Green on the Pelicans facing similar shorthanded situations in the recent past: “I have a ton of confidence in this group. We’ve been in this scenario before. We’ve been in these types of games before. They’re well aware of what’s ahead of us. We know we’ve beaten Sacramento five times (in 2023-24), but this is different. This sixth game is going to be the hardest.”