Is Zion Williamson playing tonight against the Portland Trail Blazers?

When the New Orleans Pelicans square off against the Portland Trail Blazers, they will do so without Zion Williamson. This will mark the 38th straight game (and 46th overall) that the team has been without their superstar, who has been nursing a strained hamstring injury 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 news comes as a huge blow to the team, as their season has been in a tailspin since he went down with the hamstring injury. When he went down, the team was 23-14. Since then, the team has gone 14-23, quite literally doing a complete 180.

The good news here is that the team is currently on a four-game win streak, which includes an impressive win over the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers. Thanks to the team’s recent heater, the Pelicans now hold sole possession of the eighth seed in the conference (click here to see what that means for play-in purposes) and are only two games out from the fourth seed with two weeks left to go.

On top of that, the Blazers are going to be pretty shorthanded themselves. On Saturday, it was reported that the team was leaning toward shutting down Damian Lillard for the rest of the season.

Outside of Lillard, the team also has Jusuf Nurkic, Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Trendon Watford, Justice Winslow, and Ibou Badji all listed on their injury report. So, there is a good chance they could be playing tonight’s game without any of these players available to them.

While no NBA game is a sure thing (see the Pelicans’ loss to the Houston Rockets on St. Patrick’s Day), the deck is certainly stacked in New Orleans’ favor for this game.

Along with Williamson, the team will also be without Jose Alvarado (tibia) and E.J. Liddell (knee).