Lakers Beat Pelicans in Play-In, Zion Injured – After having the game of his life, with the whole world watching on Tuesday night, in his post season debut, Zion Williamson was bitten by the injury bug once again. He was a man amongst boys, dominating with 40 points and collecting 11 rebounds in the New Orleans Pelicans’ 110-106 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, an unknown leg injury that kept him out of the game for the final three minutes and thirteen seconds may be a more devastating blow than the L itself.
With their season hanging in the balance, Williamson’s status for the Pelicans’ game on Friday against the Sacramento Kings, who defeated the Golden State Warriors, remains questionable, at best.
“Right now, it’s left leg soreness and he’s going to get imaging on it tomorrow,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said after the game. “We will figure out more. That’s the report I got back. I haven’t talked to him. But we’ll see what happens tomorrow when we get the results back.”
Moments after Williamson exited going to the locker room, LeBron James knocked down a clutch jumper with ice water in his veins, Anthony Davis deposited Austin Reaves’ alley-oop, DeAngelo Russell hit a 3 and Davis outworked Larry Nance Jr. for a critical offensive rebound and put back, after which he hit two free throws to help the Lakers ice the game.
The Pelicans “threw some heavy blows at us,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “They kept swinging. We kept fighting back.
“It revealed a lot about us and what we’re made of,” he added.
Although the Pelicans have been a participant in the NBA’s play-in round the past two seasons, Williamson did not take the floor in any of their contest due to injuries.
However, this season, he has largely been able to remain healthy, keep his weight down and avoid injuries. Williamson played a career-high 70 games during the regular season, averaging 22.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
“It was tough to see him go down,” Green said. “We are all praying and hoping he is OK.”
The reward for winning was simple. The Lakers advance to take on the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the first round in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference finals, which was a close sweep by the Nuggets. Game 1 is Saturday night at 8:30 ET.
The Pelicans will host Sacramento on Friday at the Smoothie King Arena, with the winner earning the No. 8 seed in the West.
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Kings Rout Warriors – This may have been the end of the Golden State Warriors dynasty as we know it. In the battle of northern California, the Warriors got on their team bus and traveled east to face the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night in the NBA Play-In Tournament. The winner would get an opportunity to face the New Orleans Pelicans and move on to the playoffs. After the Warriors ended the Kings Cinderella season last year in Game 7 when Stephen Curry went off for 50, Sacramento had revenge on their mind this time around and returned the favor in blowout fashion, defeating the Warriors 118-94.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr chose to start Trayce Jackson-Davis up front alongside Draymond Green. While Jackson-Davis has had a solid rookie season, Kevon Looney finished the year strong and was particularly effective against the Kings last postseason.
Jackson-Davis had a near impossible task on the defensive end, where he often found himself matched up against the far more perimeter-oriented Harrison Barnes, with Green defending Domantas Sabonis, who he has a well-documented history with. While both teams were moving the ball well offensively early, the Kings took control of the glass, recording six offensive rebounds in the opening quarter alone. With an abundance of second chance shots, the Kings raced out to a nine-point advantage, 31-22, at the end of the first quarter.
The Kings began the second quarter strong, building a 38-22 lead before the Warriors could register a field goal. Golden State’s young wing duo of Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga were able to stop the bleeding, providing a much-needed spark off the bench. Moody started the comeback by slicing into the lead with a three, an assist, and a trip to the charity strike. Then Kuminga went on a single-handed, mini 6-0 surge to trim the deficit to eight, 48-40. A nip and tuck final few minutes left the Kings in the lead by four, 54-50, at the break.
Kerr made an adjustment, inserting Kuminga into the lineup for Jackson-Davis in the second half, and it seemed to work for a while. However, the Kings just had too much gas in the tank. Or, after a decade, the Warriors’ tank could finally be on empty. Steph Curry sparked a couple of runs, briefly pulling the Warriors within one point, but the Kings always seemed to have a response. Before the end of the quarter, the Kings extended their lead to 15 once again and would never look back.
The fourth quarter was a familiar and painful sight to behold for Warriors fans. Most of them wanted to cover their eyes. Curry’s stubborn refusal to quit led to drive after drive, and attempt to push the pace after attempt to push the pace, but Sacramento’s offense had become an onslaught the Warriors could not stop.
The Kings had a ‘he will not beat us mentality’ when it came to Curry defensively. Curry finished the game with 22 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field, but it was far from enough, especially considering his six turnovers.
Curry needed some help from his teammates. Draymond Green scored 12 points and made a pair of threes, but he is not a main offensive threat that carries the scoring load. Andrew Wiggins, who was their second-best player in their last championship run when they beat the Celtics in the Finals, looked like he has for the lion’s share of the season: quiet and inefficient, finishing with 12 points.
They needed the other Splash Brother to step up. Over his Warriors career, Klay Thompson scored 15,531 points in the regular season and 3,032 in the playoffs. He has come through with flying colors when the team has needed him in the past. However, he was not able to on Tuesday.
Thompson had the worst postseason shooting performance of his career. Despite a solid regular season, Thompson’s final game on his current deal, and with his free agency around the corner, perhaps his final game in a Warriors’ uniform, was abysmal. Thompson was 0-for-10 from the field, 0-for-6 from beyond the arc and did not score.
The Kings were red hot from 3-point range, knocking down more than 40% of them. Their stars, Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox, both delivered yeomen-like performances, but it was far from just them carrying the team on their backs. It was the Kings’ other three starters, Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, and Keon Ellis who played suffocating defensive and combined for 64 points on 14-for-21 shooting from three that were the difference.
Now the Warriors have hard decisions to make this offseason. Despite promising flashes throughout the season from young players like Kuminga, Jackson-Davis, Moody, and Brandin Podziemski, the Warriors remain predominantly reliant on the core of their 2022 championship squad: Curry, Green, Thompson, and Wiggins. But how much can be expected of Wiggins after the worst season of his career and an aging Curry, Green, and Thompson?
Thompson will be a free agent. The Warriors will have Chris Paul’s non-guaranteed contract to dangle like a carrot in trade talks, but it’ is clear that a number of things probably need to change if a championship is in Golden State’s future.
