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Zion Williamson was not able to finish the game for the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday as the Pels took down a shorthanded Golden State Warriors side at the Smoothie King Center, 114-105. After the game, several reports have emerged that could explain why Zion was subbed out with three and a half minutes remaining in the game.
According to NBA reporter Andrew Lopez of ESPN, Pelicans head coach Willie Green said after the game that Williamson was not nursing any sort of injury during or after the contest:
Willie Green said he’s check with trainers but wasn’t aware of any Zion injury that held him out late. Zion looked like he motioned to the bench with 3:37 left and exited the game, briefly spoke to the trainer and then stayed on the bench for the rest of the game.
Pelicans reporter Erin Summers doubled down on the report, stating that Zion seemed like he just needed to get rehydrated:
Zion spoke with the trainer earlier in the game as well and went back in. Zion never pointed to anything bothering him and the trainer never checked for any injury, just flagged someone to get Z some fluids.
In another tweet, the ESPN reporter also implied that there's no cause for concern for the Pelicans superstar:
As Erin points out, Williamson also checked out earlier in the third quarter than usual (at 8:39) as well and when a trainer checked on him, he just drank more Gatorade. Did the same thing in the fourth quarter as well. His absence late could be as simple as that.
Be that as it may, it's still a bit intriguing that Zion wasn't able to close out the game against the Warriors. The contest didn't exactly go down the wire, but it wasn't a blowout either, so New Orleans would have likely preferred to have their star on the court if he was feeling up to it. The fact that this was the first night of a back-to-back set may have factored in on the decision as well.
Zion Williamson finished the win with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, three rebounds, an assist, and a steal in 28 minutes of play. He's already missed two out of his team's eight games so far this season.
