New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson will not play against the Washington Wizards on Friday night.
The Pelicans listed Williamson as out (resting) in his injury report on Friday afternoon.
Williamson played just under 22 minutes in the Pelicans’ 140-125 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Thursday. He had 24 points on 10 for 12 shots.
Williamson’s minutes have been a hot topic ever since the seeding games began. He left the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida for a family emergency on July 16 and returned on July 24, in quarantine until July 28.
Two days later, he played 15 minutes in the Pelicans’ first seed match against the Utah Jazz. Subsequently, he played 14 minutes against the LA Clippers before increasing to 25 minutes to win the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
Williamson missed 43 games to start the regular season due to surgery on a torn right knee meniscus. When he debuted in January, the Pelicans were careful with his minutes and initially said they would not play him in consecutive games.
But the Pelicans had no back-to-back before the season went on hiatus in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Williamson never lost any rest games during the regular season, even though he lost one to it. of a distortion. ankle.
Williamson’s day off comes at a pivotal time for the Pelicans. New Orleans is two and a half games behind Memphis for eighth place in the Western Conference, and two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for ninth seed and the right to be in the play-in tournament.
However, Phoenix and San Antonio are both ahead of New Orleans in the standings, and the Pelicans are on par with the Kings.
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