The New Orleans Pelicans have been notoriously cautious with Zion Williamson, but at least one “hurdle” has been cleared on his road to being fully healthy and available. The 2019 first overall pick can now play both games in back-to-back sets.

Pelicans coach Willie Green said after Saturday's loss to the Chicago Bulls, “It was a big hurdle for him to get over tonight. He went out and played a really good game.”

Zion Williamson's Pelicans status

Zion Williamson with speech balloon that says “Finally.” Willie Green clapping

Williamson only played 26 minutes in a 121-106 Pelicans win at home over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. He had 12 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and a block against a three-win team missing Victor Wembanyama. If ever Green could schedule an easy night for Williamson, it was against the Spurs. CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy III, both knocking off rust in their returns to the rotations, could use the extra minutes.

McCollum (flight restrictions) and Murphy III (rest) were unavailable in Chicago. Williamson logged 29 minutes in the six-point loss, but that is not the reason the Pelicans flew out empty-handed. Williamson went 10-of-15 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line to help build a 10-point lead. Chicago held New Orleans to 8-of-25 from three-point range to go along with 12 turnovers. The Bulls made 17 triples of their own to win the three-point battle by a wide margin.

“A lot of it was our mistakes, (on a) back-to-back, mental errors that we made. Our margin for error is smaller when you have guys not available tonight. We have to learn from that,” Green said to open the Pelicans' postgame press conference.

As for Williamson's back-to-back experience, Green shared that the approach has been “situational all along. There are some back-to-backs that we wanted to hold him out to try to manage what he's dealing with. There may be just some games that are not part of a back-to-back. (The Pelicans) are looking at the whole schedule. I know it has been back-to-backs and so you get the notion he's going to be out all back-to-backs, but that's not the case.”

However, Green's comments before flying to the Windy City still linger around a Pelicans locker room seemingly perpetually short-staffed.

“You know things can happen, so we want to make sure we leave space for that.”