Zion Williamson wasn’t the only thing that shook the rafters in his debut for the New Orleans Pelicans, as an earthquake cut the rookie’s first game short.
With the NBA season currently on hold we’ll begin looking at the ten most important games of the New Orleans Pelicans’ season.
July 5th Las Vegas, the stage is set for a match-up of Zion Williamson vs. RJ Barrett, picks one and three in the 2019 NBA Draft respectively. How would Zion hold up to the scrutiny of being selected first overall? Would RJ be the one to bring life back to the Mecca?
While this game did not happen during the regular season, events that occurred during the game would have a major impact on the 2019-20 season. The ESPN broadcast team (Dorris Burke and Mark Jones) noted that over 1,000 media credentials had been handed out for this event.
One weird part about this game was the Anthony Davis was still technically on the Pelicans at the time.
This is because the Lakers were still pursuing Kawhi Leonard in free agency and needed to keep the possibility of a max slot open. This means that while Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball were in attendance they were still on the Lakers.
Because the AD trade wasn’t finalized, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes were also not on the Pelicans during this game and wouldn’t play their first game with the team until July 8th.
The game was competitive even though the Knicks’ lineup featured five players who all averaged at least 11 minutes in the regular season (RJ, Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, Allonzo Trier and Kadeem Allen).
The New Orleans Pelicans had just five players on this roster play in the NBA this year (Zion, Frank Jackson, Kenrich Williams and Zylan Cheatham) and Christian Wood who spent the regular season with Detroit.
The referees ended this game with just under eight minutes to play due to an earthquake that caused the ground to move under the announcers’ seats and the scoreboard and speakers to shake above the court.
But the damage was done to the New Orleans Pelicans long before the earthquake struck; in the second quarter Zion hurt his knee in a collision. At the time the injury was not expected to be serious and there was hope he would return for later summer league games.
We know now that injury and the surgery that was required after caused Zion to miss 45 games in the regular season.
Who had the best game?
The game itself was a duel between Frank Jackson and Allonzo Trier, each going for 20+ points. Jackson had an especially impressive game; to go along with his game high 30 points, he had three rebounds, two blocks and shot 64.7% from the field including 3-3 from three point range in his 31 minutes.
It was nice to see Jackson in control of the team and game after missing all of the 2018-19 season with injuries to his foot. It was just summer league but he showed the potential to be a spark plug with the reserve units.
It was obvious early on that the New Orleans Pelicans were trying to force their offense through Zion and get him started. The very first offensive play the Pelicans ran was an attempted alley-oop to Zion (he was fouled). It really wasn’t until he got hurt that the team settled down and played good basketball.
What was the biggest moment of the game?
While Zion didn’t start out that great he did have the moment of the game. After a missed runner from Trevon Bluiett and a tipped rebound from Robinson, Kevin Knox came down with the ball.
Little did Knox know what was lurking behind him. As he started to turn to avoid the hand of Bluiett, Zion stepped up and ripped the ball from Knox’s arms.
Sending Knox flying to the floor Zion rose up and threw down a monster slam. That was the moment even the most skeptical fan knew Zion would fit in just fine in the NBA.
What was the main takeaway from this game?
The main takeaway from this game was that Zion looked dominant in the limited minutes we got to see, even though the New Orleans Pelicans were outscored by 15 points when he was in the game. That seemed to be more because the team was forcing it rather than letting the game come to them.
What did we learn from this game?
There wasn’t much we could learn about the Pelicans from this game unfortunately, as stated earlier only four Pelicans who played in this game would go on to play any NBA minutes this season. While Christian Wood would go on the have a very impressive regular season in Detroit, he did not get one minute of playing time in this game.
How did we feel about the team after the game?
It’s hard to believe, but at the time it felt like Zion would be back in a few days and would continue to show out against NBA talent. With the New Orleans Pelicans leading at the time the game was cancelled there was a good amount of hope.
This team without Zion beat a team that was playing members of its real rotation in this game.
Notes while rewatching the game.
- China’s National team was playing in the Las Vegas part of summer league (Daryl Morey was still months away from tweeting about Hong Kong).
- The 2019 Draft must have been the first time that two left handed players went in the top 3 (Zion and RJ).
- Jud Buechler was coaching the Knicks in this game (“The Last Dance” watchers will recognize the name, he was a small forward with the Bulls from 1994-98).
- Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Dwight Howard was traded to Memphis (the news came across the bottom line).
- Jrue Holiday joined the broadcast team during the second quarter to discuss the Ne Orleans Pelicans, Nicolo Melli had been signed about 10 days before this game.
- It’s easy to forget but Jrue and AD played seven seasons together in New Orleans (2012-19).
- Zion was still wearing Duke shoes in this game (didn’t sign with Nike until early August)