{"id":511635,"date":"2026-01-02T11:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T11:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:16:17","slug":"what-zion-williamsons-pelicans-are-hammering-amid-2026-nba-playoffs-scramble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511635\/","title":{"rendered":"What Zion Williamson\u2019s Pelicans are \u2018hammering\u2019 amid 2026 NBA Playoffs scramble"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Zion Williamson\u2019s Pelicans are \u2018hammering\u2019 amid 2026 NBA Playoffs scramble<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the calendar flips toward the new year, the busted-up New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> find themselves once again scraping for relevance in the Western Conference standings. Sporting a dismal 8-26 record going into a New Year\u2019s Eve date with the Chicago Bulls, Zion Williamson<\/a> and Derik Queen<\/a> are languishing in last place. Still, the locker room has shown flickers of life under interim coach James Borrego, including a five-game winning streak that briefly ignited hope for the final Play-In Tournament spot.<\/p>\n

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The transformation has not come from wholesale changes to their system. According to Borrego, the uptick has been less about schematic reinvention and more about collective buy-in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I saw, and it\u2019s something we\u2019ve been hammering, is moving the ball and sharing it. I think we had 19 threes at half. A lot of corner threes, a lot of kickout threes. We emphasized it (before playing the Knicks),\u201d Borrego explained. \u201cThe guys went in, trusted in it, believed in it, and that to me was the catalyst in the whole first half, was just sharing the basketball. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

The formula dovetails with Williamson\u2019s gravity. When the Pelicans get downhill, particularly through Williamson\u2019s rim pressure, the offense becomes a sequence of reads rather than forced outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a team that gets downhill,\u201d Borrego suggested, \u201cbut can we trust it, get off the ball, and get quality threes or the rim? Either one that presents itself is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That willingness to make the extra pass has opened up the offense in ways that pure athleticism alone couldn\u2019t accomplish. When defenses collapse on penetration, the Pelicans are now consistently finding open shooters rather than forcing contested finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any NBA game against a good team, they are going to pick up their defense in the second half. I thought we stuck with it, though. Our offense had enough going. Our defense picked up, too, and we had a seven-point lead to start the fourth. We\u2019ll take that, we\u2019ve just got to close. Bottom line. We\u2019ve just got to go close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final possession against the Knicks highlighted the delicate balance between coaching and player execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree-point game, we made a call,\u201d Borrego replied. \u201cWe did not have a timeout with 16 seconds on the shot clock; we were trying to get a good look. We made a simple call. Ad at that point, they\u2019ve [the players] got to go make plays. Obviously, I\u2019ll go watch it to see what we could have done better, but it looked to me like (Jordan Poole<\/a>) thought he could have drawn a foul there in a three-point game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As the Pelicans chase one of the final Play-In Tournament spots, the margin for error remains razor-thin. However, the foundation Borrego is building represents exactly the kind of sustainable approach that can carry a team through the pressure-packed final months of the season.<\/p>\n

The question now isn\u2019t whether the Pelicans can play winning basketball. Their five-game winning streak proved they can. The real test lies in their ability to maintain that standard consistently and, most critically, to execute when games hang in the balance. If they can master the art of closing, the offensive principles they\u2019ve been hammering all season will give them a genuine chance to extend their campaign into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Related: Why Zion Williamson, Derik Queen\u2019s Pelicans will \u2018bust through\u2019 losing ways in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Zion Williamson\u2019s new life in Pelicans starting lineup creates optimistic outlook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What Zion Williamson\u2019s Pelicans are \u2018hammering\u2019 amid 2026 NBA Playoffs scramble appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,329,803,4190,2771,304,6,11,470,40491,814],"class_list":{"0":"post-511635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-derik-queen","11":"tag-james-borrego","12":"tag-jordan-poole","13":"tag-knicks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-playoffs","16":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","17":"tag-winning-streak","18":"tag-zion-williamson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115825225498965096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}