Is Zion Williamson playing tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers?

The New Orleans Pelicans travel to the City of Angels to face Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. And for the 37th straight game (and 45th overall), the team will be without their best player Zion Williamson, who continues to nurse the hamstring strain he suffered on January 2nd against the Philadelphia 76ers.

On Wednesday, it was announced that while Williamson was now cleared for on-court activity, he would not be reevaluated again for a potential return for at least another two weeks. This was reported on March 22nd, so based on that timetable, he would be getting looked at again on April 5th. At that point, the Pelicans would have just three games remaining on the season.

This is tough news to hear, as the team has largely struggled in Williamson’s absence. When he went down, New Orleans boasted a 23-14 win-loss record. Since then, they have been 13-23.

However, recently, the team has pulled it together behind the brilliance of Brandon Ingram – winning their last three games by double digits. Although, that feat does come with the caveat that those wins came against three of the four worst teams in the association.

As it stands, the Pelicans currently have sole possession of the ninth seed in the Western Conference, making them eligible for the NBA Play-In Tournament if the season ended right now (to learn how the play-in tournament works, check out this post here).

With that said, the team still has a puncher’s chance of avoiding the tournament and clinching a playoff berth outright. They are only two games behind the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors and two and a half games behind the fourth-seeded Clippers.

Being that the Clippers are their adversary for the night (and that they play them again next Saturday), a win tonight would go a long way toward helping the Pelicans climb up the standings.

Along with Williamson, the team will also be without Jose Alvarado (tibia) and E.J. Liddell (knee). Meanwhile, second-year forward Trey Murphy III has been listed as questionable (toe irritation).