With their loss to the Clippers on Tuesday (in which they led by one with less than three minutes to go), the Mavs are 10-13 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes. I stood over that shot [and thought], I dont know where this ball is going to go. The 6-foot-7 Williamson, in his second season out of Duke after becoming the No. How does that work? ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Smart stuff.). In Tuesdays loss to the Lakers, he had three turnovers in the first quarter that drained the energy from the building. Were 54% through the 2019-20 season. A couple of reasons. According to NBA.com , that's how many points per game Zion Williamson is averaging in the paint this season. If his defender anticipates the screen, he'll take off in the other direction. More space means more opportunity for him to gain steam. pic.twitter.com/SLa2UhinrP, Orange is the New Openly Black (@NekiasNBA) January 20, 2021. WebZion Williamson Stats and news - NBA stats and news on New Orleans Pelicans Forward Zion Williamson Utah exploited Zion for chunks of the game by putting him in motion and making him read and move on defense. OU football: Brent Venables says hard times necessary for Sooners With Ball crossing midcourt with 21 seconds on the shot clock and DeMar DeRozan trailing the play, the Spurs got cross-matched. Well, the Mavs average margin of victory in their 28 wins is 14.7 points. More capable teams from the perimeter have run the Pelicans out of the gym on multiple occasions. Williamson took DeRozan into the paint and Ball lofted a lob pass over the helpless defender. https://twitter.com/ballysportsno/status/1380707921609252865?s=21. Our aim? Jokic finished the night with 27 points on 21 shots, 12 rebounds, and six assists in a 119-101 Denver win. Tacko Fall Is 7-Foot-6. And Hes Breaking Basketball. Nothing worked consistently. Since Williamson injured his hamstring, Valaninas hasnt provided that reliable third option needed to take pressure off McCollum and Ingram. Playing with a poorly built roster, under his second coach (who has since been fired), at just 20 years old, Williamson put up historic numbers averaging 27.0 points on 61 percent shooting. 1, Kia Rookie Ladder: Haliburton climbs to No. It brings to an end one of the best, highest-level first-round series in recent memory. The second-year guard and the veteran leader each could be critical pieces for LA in the playoffs. Explore all New Orleans Pelicans NBA player stats - including scoring, rebounding, shooting, assists & more! Getting Randle back would be a good start. Jokic is averaging a triple-double this season: 25.1 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 10 assists a game, with a ridiculously efficient 65.8 true shooting percentage. In this clip, you can see Williamson beat his primary defender off the dribble and Joel Embiid rotate over to block his layup attempt. Jakob Poeltl picked up Ball and DeRozan was forced to match up with Williamson trailing the play. Last season, Williamson scored 15.8 points per game in the restricted area, the highest mark in the 25 years for which we have shot-location data. Zion Williamson has averaged 32.4 points over his last five games. By the way, there was a Bol Bol sighting in this game, with him going coast-to-coast for the slam. Butler had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and the No. Zion Williamson | New Orleans Pelicans | NBA.com David Griffin and Pelicans management put players such as Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe around Zion this year, which does not create a lot of spacing. Perhaps the wear and tear from everything Valaninas did last year and the first half of this season is catching up with him. Julius Randle (sprained left ankle) is out. Zion is as strong and explosive as anyone who has ever played the game, and when Gobert would play back daring Zion to shoot from the outside, he would use that on a runway, get rolling downhill, get his body into Gobert and get a bucket. The reports of the death of the Warriors era have been greatly exaggerated. WebRotowire Apr 14, 2023. While the Pelicans lack of spacing and dearth of supplementary scoring options have played a large part in the offenses stagnation, the ball getting stuck with McCollum (and Ingram) has also hurt. As a team the Kings shot under 40%, 25.5% from 3, and had an offensive rating of 104.2. We all remember Allen for his step-back three in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA finals, forcing overtime against the Spurs and changing that series. While hes doing that, hes a developing shooter from the perimeter, from the standpoint finding more opportunities to get clean looks.. Since then, the Pelicans are 26th in offensive rating, 14th in points in the paint and have been held under 100 points more times (six) than theyve reached 120 (five). Lets break down a few of the problems: The most important skill in the modern NBA is the one the Pelicans lack the most. Rockets guard struggling to hit jumpers as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats, Plus, a look at zone defense and Al Horford's play without Joel Embiid, Clippers star in midst of worst shooting season as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats. The last five games have been the highest-scoring stretch (32.4 ppg) of Williamsons career. The pre-playoffs conventional wisdom on how this series might play out. Williamson started alongside Derrick Favors and, through the first three quarters, he had played 9:50 at power forward and just 1:51 at center. He ranked first among all rookies in Draft Lottery Odds: 14.0 percent chance at No. Ben Simmons and the 76ers have improved on defense since the break, despite the absence of Joel Embiid. But sometimes he tries to force the issue, throwing the entire offense out of whack. Dropping a 7-foot-4 centre with a 7-foot-10 wingspan to the paint should work but Marjanovic probably wasn't expecting Williamson to take off around the dotted line and jump so high that he could softly lay the ball in. All picks and predictions are suggestions only. Zion Williamson And the Pelicans are nowhere close to great. So the Pelicans will sometimes try to set those screens as low as possible, like at the dotted circle , A low screen can make it tougher for the defender to get under and give Williamson a runway , Switching the ball screen can keep Williamson from being able to get downhill, but it can also put him in a matchup he prefers , Williamson has also shown an ability to read his own defender. For more information, please read our Legal Disclaimer. Zion Williamson Is Primed to Take a Leap Forward for 2, Clippers find their spark with Mann, Rondo, Series preview: What to expect in Warriors-Lakers, 5 takeaways from Warriors' Game 7 victory, 5 takeaways from Heat's Game 1 win over Knicks, Curry sets Game 7 record with 50 points vs. Kings, Brooks fined $25K for violating interview rules, 15.8 points per game in the restricted area, the second highest effective field goal percentage, the No. In Game 7, Sabonis was 8-of-10 on shots in the paint, 2-of- 6 from everywhere else (he took and missed one 3), and Looney dominated him in the paint. The biggest number is the one turnover. 2021 Zion Williamson: 20-1972007 Dwight Howard: 21-631993 Shaquille O'Neal: 21-248, Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) January 20, 2021. Shooting just 41.9 percent from the field entering the game against New Orleans, Mitchell has began to turn the corner when it comes to his scoring efficiency early in the 2021 season. In particular, McCollum tends to rely on his own offense rather than moving the ball and allowing the offense to breathe when it starts to break down. To tie a bow on it, Williamson is a good passer. The truth is, his ceiling is high and his bag is deep, but until NBA defenses find a way to limit him in the paint, we wont see him digging too deeply. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. The Lakers win in Brooklyn on Thursday was the first game that either JaVale McGee (who was out with an illness) or Dwight Howard has missed this season, and the two centers have combined to average a little more than 37 minutes per game. What makes Williamson unique in those situations is well, a number of things. Recently, Giannis Antetokounmpos Finals MVP has done great work for the Anti-Bag Twitter campaign. And the Pelicans quest to get Williamson to the rim as much as possible will continue. Zion Williamson nearing Shaquille O'Neal's record, posts another Zion Williamsons Rookie Numbers Are Historic | FiveThirtyEight 1 option when available. Williamson's body control is incredible. After sweeping their New York back-to-back, the Lakers complete their five-game trip in Philadelphia on Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC). (By the way, notice how low Steven Adams set the screen for Williamson? His 3-point shot would be the one nit-picking outlier of his offensive arsenal. But watching Valaninas this year underscores how he hasnt been same force he was during his first season with the Pelicans. Golden State's star sharpshooter enjoys another historic moment, which also set his playoff career high. But are they even better than that? Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the Pelicans' Play-In Matchup against the Thunder, Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com reports. Were trying to get him to up that to four or five. He has a good enough handle to blow by defenders who press up on him. That stretch continues with a back-to-back at home, where the Pels are hosting the Orlando on Thursday (8 ET, League Pass) and Atlanta on Friday (9 ET, League Pass). Hard not to be skeptical of the 3-point shooting (though it's great that he shot without hesitation), but what got an audible "Wow!" Just ask two-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, who had the task of guarding Williams for large chunks of Utahs win over New Orleans Tuesday. In his first 17 games this season, Williamson was making 66.7 percent of his shots from the foul line. If anything, the offense has been even yuckier whenever Valaninas is on the court. According to NBA.com , the New Orleans Pelicans star averaged 20.3 points per game in the paint. STEPH IS IN A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN pic.twitter.com/xUR53sB6yy, Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 30, 2023, Steph was elite, Kings coach Mike Brown said. Minimum 100 FGA in the paint & 100 FGA outside the paint. (To boot, many of his "unassisted baskets" were putbacks). So why dont we see these tools more frequently? And all of Williamsons minutes at the five were at the start of the second and fourth quarters, when Ingram was on the bench. The Warriors have been in these moments for a decade and had the poise to handle it. Of course, close games count. At the very least, their offense was rolling through teams nightly. On the other hand, its hard for Green to ignore his teams minus-26.3 net rating when the starters are on the floor compared to the plus-9.1 net rating it posts when Valaninas is removed. This might have been the greatest Stephen Curry game of them all. The Lakers defense has been great in those minutes with him at the five, but the offense has been sub-par (104.8 points scored per 100 possessions), in part because Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, James and Troy Daniels have all shot worse from 3-point range in those minutes (30% combined) than they have otherwise. He shot 42.9 percent as a rookie on 0.6 attempts per game. There was no better example than Tuesdays ugly loss to the Lakers, which included Los Angeles splashing a franchise-record 15 3-pointers in the first half on a lifeless Pels squad. Instead of driving into the same fate, Williamson stops and pulls up for a smooth jumper, something thats been in his bag since he first started going viral as a teen. 1 Biggest Draft Need: Floor general In truth, the Houston Rockets' biggest draft need is more abstract than any singular item. Like Antetokounmpo, Williamson has been criticized for not attempting shots outside of the paint at any meaningful volume. He reassured me that he wasnt going to be a liability and he wanted to stay in there and make sure we get this win, Spoelstra said. Hall of Famer Ray Allen is as detail-oriented, and as process-driven a shooter as the league has ever seen. Here you can see Williamson notice Embiid is ready to rotate again for another block. While Myles Turner is turning heads down low, T.J. McConnell is leading with effort in the backcourt. We think of Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and Ben Simmons as the trio of stars against whom you have to wall up, forcing them to beat you over the top. I still view him as the best passer on the team. The longer the game went on, the more isolation there was. Zion Williamson - Wikipedia His decision-making has been erratic at times, and hes trying to do more than necessary to open up things for his teammates. As he showed Sunday, that can be enough. Interestingly, all those preseason minutes were played with Brandon Ingram, Nicolo Melli or Kenrich Williams playing the four alongside Williamson. Ingrams passing has gradually improved throughout his four seasons in New Orleans. Even if a team thinks theyhave one player who has a decent shot at hanging with him, they almost certainly don't have two, making switching against the Pelicans adangerous game. Not only can he play through contact, but he can also absorbcontact and adjust while he's midair. Last season, Zion averaged 12.9 drives per game, around the same as LaMelo Ball and Kawhi Leonard. You expect it to be tough, coach Erik Spoelstra said. Its how Zion ended up with 32 points against Gobert and the Jazz. I had a flash, a moment of brilliance, where I said, this is just like basketball if I dont practice, I dont know where this is going to go., I said, this is the shot I need to practice all the time. After that, I went to the range a lot on worked on every club, every two clubs, so I knew what that club was going to do.. Kyle Lowry scored 18 points. If not, Davis only played 4% of his minutes at power forward last season. While the Mavs have scored 116.4 points per 100 possessions (No. Hes taken 82% of his shots in the restricted area, the third highest rate among 251 players with at least 200 field goal attempts and down just a tick from last season (85%). How To Keep Geraniums, Fuchsias Over The Winter PPP = Points per possession. His passing chops caught my eye early in his rookie season and he's shown real signs of improvement this season. He's gone from being more ofa finisher to more of aplaymaker, getting more opportunities to create for himself out of isolation and in the pick-and-roll. That backpedaling three was no accident Allen had practiced it. I was horrific, he said. He has a good enough handle to blow by defenders who press up on him. The Knights held opponents to 36.5 percent shooting from the field in 2016-17, which hasnt really been tested outside the paint? They did it without needing the type of huge performances Butler delivered in the first round, when he scored 56 and 42 points in the final two games. According to Second Spectrum tracking, he ranks sixth in the league with 2.2 pass-ahead passes per game. Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the Williamson dominated the paint in the little we saw of him last season, but the way he's doing it this season is different. That starts with shooting Zion made a jump hook in the third quarter of this game that was his first made basket outside the paint this season, reports Andrew Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 30, 2023. ', Its just Steph Curry. Their win in Boston on Monday began a stretch where the Pels are playing 12 of 14 games against the Eastern Conference. The rookie takes over the top spot as he continues to provide a steady hand to Sacramento's playoff push. He went through a workout before the game, but the Knicks ruled him out about 45 minutes before the start. NBA Jam partners and why New Orleans Pelicans are building He hasnt played 20 consecutive games at any point this season. They averaged 124 points in that series behind Butlers 37.6 per game, but they pulled this one out with old-fashioned defense and rebounding that has always worked so well before for them at this time of year. Transition and cut (non-roll-man catches in the paint, for the most part) play-types are still where Williamson is doing the highest volume of work. December feels like a lifetime ago for the New Orleans Pelicans. Even if a team thinks theyhave one player who has a decent shot at hanging with him, they almost certainly don't have two, making switching against the Pelicans adangerous game. The Hornets are 16-6 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes and 8-16 otherwise. No one should expect to make money from the picks and predictions discussed on this website. The Pelicans rank fifth in both pace (103.3 possessions per 48 minutes) and fast break points per game (16.4). Zion Williamson is averaging 26.5 points on 61.7% shooting this season. He reinjured his ankle in Game 5 against Cleveland after missing the final five games of the regular season and hadnt done much since the Knicks returned to practice. First, it's the highest mark in the league. The Thunders fortunes in close games has them in seventh place in the West. After getting traded to New Orleans, McCollumembraced the opportunity to show he could be more than just the single-minded scorer he was in Portland. 1 defense since the All-Star break, the most defensive boards since the break, the leagues best 3-point shooting team in the clutch. Officially, according to Tom Thibodeau, Knicks forward Julius Rankle will be a game-time decision with his sprained ankle. Remember, he missed the entire 2021-2022 season. We believe that we can do something special.. (They were outscored, 26-21, with Williamson at the four.) The whole point of having a player like Valaninas is to make the game steadier when things slow down and take advantage of having a capable post scorer to maneuver one-on-one. In a season full of comically awful numbers, this one has jumped out the most: The Pelicans normal starting lineup without Zion (McCollum, Jones, Ingram, Murphy and Valaninas) is getting outscored by a whopping 26.3 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. Were together, at home, on the road, through the good and through the bad. He's also the first player to do this at all in Pelicans history. Ja Morant is probably going to be a top-three pick in the 2019 NBA Draft because of his star potential. Zion Williamson Its his field goal percentage. Prior to the 911 call reporting the shooting, at 4:56 p.m., a sheriff's office sergeant driving north on Highway 3 between Gorst and Bremerton spotted a man To be clear, Williamsons paint dominance is comparable to Shaquille ONeals, but they are achieved in different ways. He added a 3-pointer during it, but his biggest contribution was with his outlet passing. The paint dust, they say, matches paint dust from the Kenworth Trucking Co. in Renton where Ridgway worked for years. He still has a lot of developingto do imagine him with even a semi-reliable jump shot and yethe's already one of the league's most dominant scorers, a 20-year-old who is doing things we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal. His 20.3 points in the paint per game were the most in a season since Shaquille ONeals 1999-00 MVP season. Breaking down the Golden State-Los Angeles matchup with 3 things to watch, 1 X-factor and a series prediction. It gives CJ more of a balance being on the floor where he doesnt have to have the ball in his hands and initiate every time, Green said. Since Jan. 1, New Orleans is 28th in the league in both 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage. Happy Friday! After the ball goes out of bounds, New Orleans immediately gives the ball back to Zion and he adjusts. Davis has an effective field goal percentage of 39.4% on shots from outside the paint, a mark that ranks 117th among 122 players who have taken at least 200 shots from the outside (not including backcourt shots). I think it helps CJ more than anything.. Green has shot 44% from beyond the arc with Davis at the four and just 25% with Davis at the five. Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans, PF - News, Stats, Bio According to NBA.com , 76.2 percent of the field goals he made as a rookie were assisted. 71.4: This is Williamsons shooting percentage this preseason.No, not his free throw percentage. Since 2000, the only player who has scoredin the paint at a higher clip than what we're seeing from Williamsonthis season is Shaquille O'Neal. Losing perhaps the most dominant paint scorer in the game certainly changes the dynamic drastically. Breaking down stats and film from around the NBA, including a look at Zion's improved ball-handling skills. If defenses ever challenge him, we will see all Zion has to offer. Imagining Victor Wembanyama on Every 2023 NBA Lottery Team The starting lineups struggles this season has illuminated a larger issue thats popped up while Williamson has been out: The experiment of making McCollum a point guard in New Orleans hasnt worked as well as he hoped when he joined the team last season. NBA Season Preview: Will Ja Morant become the Memphis Grizzlies first superstar? Davis is a different kind of player and keeping him from scoring inside is a lot easier said than done, but hes in that category of guys who are much more effective inside than they are from the perimeter. In fact, if you counted only games that werent within five points in the last five minutes, the Mavs would have the best record in the West. Over the last 10 years, Kawhi Leonard (four times, including this season) and Tyus Jones (three times, including this season) are the only players whove had more steals than personal fouls (with a minimum of 500 minutes played) more than twice. He has the athletic gifts to be a good defender, but hes still figuring out how to use them at the NBA level. Zion also is moving better off the ball this season. Zion Williamson (To boot, many of his "unassisted baskets" were putbacks). COAST 2 COAST @BolBol pic.twitter.com/Nt7w0QqsnQ, Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 20, 2021. Zion The result is the Pelicans trade their twos for opponent threes, and that math does not add up. When the Pelicans play their five best players outside of Williamson this season, they arent just getting beat. Ingram may be the one exception, but his outside shooting numbers have dipped dramatically after a hot start. Good luck making up those 45 points and getting a win. @StephenCurry30 went off the man dropped 50 https://t.co/jnbpt4Vpb3 pic.twitter.com/LTd3V0X1Wf, Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 30, 2023, Andy Murray (@andy_murray) April 30, 2023. Freq = Percentage of his total possessions Zion is efficient at his shots, going 14-of-19 against Utah. They started strong and led most of the first half, but the Heat eventually got the Madison Square Garden crowd quieter and quieter as the game went on. But its been a more balanced diet and the continued development of his off-the-dribble game will be critical going forward. The player closest to Williamson is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is averaging 16.9points per game in the paint. Steph Curry you filthy animal lol he just packed up a very good team in a very tough building , Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) April 30, 2023, Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) April 30, 2023, Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) April 30, 2023, DeMar DeRozan (@DeMar_DeRozan) April 30, 2023, Kristaps Porzingis (@kporzee) April 30, 2023, Sabrina Ionescu (@sabrina_i20) April 30, 2023, Monte Morris (@BigGameTae) April 30, 2023, Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) April 30, 2023, Dennis Smith Jr. (@Dennis1SmithJr) April 30, 2023, This is me after saying Sacramento Kings could beat Golden State. WebZion Williamson is an obvious choice here after playing in only 29 games. But his work in the paint, along with the seventh highest free throw rate (52 attempts per 100 shots from the field) among those 251 players, has Williamson ranking eighth in scoring at 26.4 points per game. Their average margin of defeat in their 16 losses is 6.3. The most significant change for New Orleans at the start of the year was obvious: the Pelicans lost Williamson to a right hamstring strain in a Jan. 2 loss to Philadelphia. It's worth noting that Williamson was the He has been among the best players in the league so far this season. If nothing else this postseason, the Kings went from the team everyone thought they wanted to face to the team everyone is glad they didnt have to face. Jimmy Butler is a master at drawing fouls.
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