On Wednesday, January 29, the New Orleans Pelicans fell just short against the Dallas Mavericks, 136-137. It was the perfect game for the Pels this season. They put on a fantastic show in front of the hometown crowd, got encouraging performances from several of their players, saw CJ McCollum break a franchise record, and added another tally in the loss column.
Zion Williamson in particular had a spectacular showing, with 29 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and two steals on a pristine 11-18 shooting. It marked his third game in a row scoring 28 or more. Unfortunately for the Pelicans and their fans, it was also only his 13th game of the season.
Of course, the New Orleans faithful are no strangers to injuries or absences from their stars. This year, the Pelicans expected to make a return to the playoffs and make a deep run after acquiring All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray. Instead, due to their entire core getting hurt in the early weeks of the season, they're competing for the top odds in the NBA Draft lottery with the rest of the league's basement dwellers.
Zion's already missed a huge chunk of this campaign with a hamstring strain. Since he's returned, he's tacked on additional absences due to suspensions, reconditioning, and standard load management in back-to-backs. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we'll see Zion Williamson in both legs of a back-to-back anytime soon for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Zion Williamson says that the New Orleans Pelicans are still holding him out of back-to-backs
The last time that Zion played in both games of a back-to-back was in late October when the Pelicans played two straight against the Golden State Warriors on the road on the 29th and the 30th. That was when the season was still young and New Orleans still had playoff hopes.
Since returning from his hamstring injury, Zion's already skipped out on three back-to-back opportunities. It doesn't look like his availability for these grueling consecutive games will change anytime soon either. Per The Athletic's Will Guillory, Williamson had this to say when asked about playing back-to-backs:
"Let me make this clear to everybody out there. If I could play in the back-to-backs, I would. Physically? Yes, I can. But I work for the Pelicans. They have decided that, based off the numbers, it's not smart to do that right now. If that's what they feel, I'm rocking with them on that."
It's certainly encouraging that Zion feels like he could physically handle the strain of playing two days in a row, especially after his concerningly long furlough from a hamstring injury. The wording of his answer is a bit curious though. By "numbers," Z could be alluding to two different things.
Either he's referencing the Pelicans' abysmal record and stating that the team doesn't believe there's any reason for him to risk his health in a lost season or the team's research has informed them that holding Zion out of back-to-backs could significantly preserve his long-term durability. Either way, we can surmise that New Orleans plans on retaining Williamson at least for the foreseeable future and that we won't see Big Z play in any back-to-backs anytime soon.