The New Orleans Pelicans barely held on for a 129-125 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night in their NBA preseason matchup. New Orleans held a lead as big as 19 points but surrendered it in the second half.
While it was certainly encouraging to win the game, that was far from the most important thing to occur. For the Pelicans, the most important part of the game, regardless of the outcome, was seeing Zion Williamson back on the court.
Williamson was making his much-anticipated return, playing in an NBA game for the first time since May 4th, 2021. He missed the entire 2021-22 season because of a broken foot but you would have never known it with how he performed in the preseason opener.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft was in the gym all offseason, further rehabbing his injury and getting into shape. The changes are evident as Williamson’s body has been transformed. Hopefully, that will help him stay healthy as he has dealt with numerous lower-body injuries in his career. Head coach Willie Green was pleased with what he saw.
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“He looked good and he’s just going to continue to get better,” Green said. “That’s what we know about Z. He works at it. He’s a competitor. And you know it doesn’t look like it but he had 13 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes. That’s the type of work he puts in on the floor.”
Williamson played 15 minutes, scoring 13 points with four rebounds, one assist and one steal. He made some highlight plays including a baseline drive pats Patrick Williams that resulted in a dunk. A chase-down block on Williams, that was ultimately whistled as a goaltend, came just a few possessions before the dunk as well.
The Duke product was excited to get back out on the court and the feeling was mutual for the fans who have been waiting 17 months to see him back, healthy and playing.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Zion Williamson & New Orleans Pelicans Updates
“Couldn’t show them everything,” Williamson said following the victory. “But just kind of getting a feel for it again. Find spots. Picking and choosing where I want to attack. But, I got a new team since the last time I played. I’m still learning some of the guys. Today we were able to click. I feel like if we can do that for the rest of these preseason games, I feel we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
The Pelicans surprised a lot of people when they qualified for the NBA Play-In Tournament at the end of the 2021-22 season. They defeated the San Antonio Spurs and LA Clippers in those games, earning the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and a matchup with the No. 1 seed Phoenix Suns.
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New Orleans gave Phoenix all they could handle before losing in six games. Many people wondered if things would have been different had Williamson been in the lineup alongside Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Jonas Valanciunas. That is a strong core as the Pelicans also have a great group of young players to complement them.
With a healthy Williamson, this is a team that could make some noise in the Western Conference.
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