The New Orleans Pelicans suffered their eighth straight loss on Friday against the Mavericks to fall to 2-14 for the season. In a game where they led by 15 at one point and were in control for most of it, the Pelicans fell agonizingly short.
Despite the loss, there were some positive takeaways. Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears were excellent once again, and the Pelicans competed very well throughout the night. Perhaps the most important takeaway, however, was the fact that Zion Williamson was an afterthought for most of the evening, including in the clutch.
Williamson took only nine shots in his 30 minutes of action. He attempted the fewest field goals among Pelicans starters. Cleaning the Glass put his usage rate at 19.6% for the game, behind Fears, Queen, and even Jose Alvarado. Williamson was still effective, scoring 22 points, thanks largely in part to his 11 free-throw attempts.
Zion Williamson Wasn’t Even on the Floor in Pelicans’ Final Possession
The Pelicans’ clutch offense was very telling about Williamson’s role within the team. In the last five minutes of the game, everything ran through Queen. Williamson only took two field goals in that span, despite his impressive and-one with two minutes left in the game, and scoring two more from the charity stripe after stealing the ball from Naji Marshall and going out in transition in the ensuing possession. Queen and Murphy, on the other hand, took nine shots in total in the last five minutes.
The most telling of it all, however, was the fact that Williamson was not on the court in the final ten seconds of the game when the Pelicans had the ball. New Orleans was down with ten seconds left and needed a three to tie the game. James Borrego subbed in Jordan Hawkins for Williamson for the final offensive possession of the game.
On paper, bringing in an extra shooter in that situation makes sense. That shooter coming in for Williamson, however, is very surprising. Teams rarely take their superstar out in clutch situations. The Pelicans had Herb Jones on the floor for that possession, is he really a better offensive weapon to have on the court than Williamson?
This may have been a message for Williamson or a signal of the changing times in New Orleans. This is no longer Zion Williamson’s team. The Jeremiah Fears-Derik Queen era is here, and we may remember this Dallas game as the official start of it.
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