Zion’s Minutes and the New Orleans Pelicans Chances in Back-to-Backs
The New Orleans Pelicans and Zion Williamson will play their first back-to-back in the bubble.
The New Orleans Pelicans face their first scheduling challenge in the bubble, as they will play a back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards.
There are a lot of elements at play here.
The New Orleans Pelicans are a long shot to make the playoffs after getting smoked by the Kings in a game where their defense never came out of the locker room.
Rookie Zion Williamson has been on a minutes limitation but did play 22 effective minutes against the Kings, so it is questionable if he’ll be available for the second game of the back-to-back.
The Pelicans have been one of the most inconsistent teams in the NBA, at times looking like a young title contender and at others just looking young, as they did against the Clippers and Kings.
But the Pelicans still have games to play, including this one against the Wizards. Lose this one and even the faintest glimmer of hope is gone.
Will the back-to-back end the Pelicans’ season?
Let’s take a look at how the Pels have fared in such games this season and how they handled Zion.
The New Orleans Pelicans have been good in back-to-back games.
The Pelicans have played nine back-to-back games this season, and have won most of them, going 5-4 overall.
The good news is that the four losses came against the Rockets, Clippers, Celtics and Mavericks, all teams in the playoffs with title aspirations.
The five games they won came against the Hornets, Warriors, Timberwolves, Rockets and Kings. This is a good sign for the Pelicans, as they were able to take care of business against lesser teams, even on the end of a back-to-back.
They did get blown out in two of the losses, getting trounced by the Clippers 134-109, and hammered by the Celtics 140-105 in one of the most lopsided losses of the season.
Zion’s Minutes in Back-to-Backs
The Pelicans only had one back-to-back after Zion returned from injury in January and there were a lot of questions about how Alvin Gentry would handle his minutes.
Zion played 36 minutes against the Timberwolves in the first game and came back with 35 minutes the following night against Dallas.
Obviously these circumstances are far different than back in early March.
Zion won’t be playing 35 minutes against the Wizards, that much is certain, but he should be able to bounce back and play 20-25 as he did against the Kings.
Zion was 10-12 for 24 points in his 22 minutes, so it’s obvious the Pelicans need his production.
Things are looking grim after the loss to the Kings, but the Pelicans still need to get back to work and win this game against the Wizards.
It will be a good test for a young team still trying to figure itself out and a chance for the front office to decide what needs to happen moving forward.