The New Orleans Pelicans will have their best player available for what might be the team's biggest game of the regular season. Zion Williamson was listed as questionable to play in New Orleans' pivotal clash with the Phoenix Suns on Sunday due to a left finger contusion, but he has since been upgraded to available.
The two-time All-Star exited his team's 117-108 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday several minutes into the fourth quarter due to the injury, never returning. X-rays taken after the game were negative, with coach Willie Green adding that Williamson was “good” and simply experiencing “soreness in his finger.” The injury occurred in the second quarter, when Williamson hit his finger on the backboard while attempting to block a shot by Orlando guard Jalen Suggs.
“Earlier in the game, it got hit a few times. When I went for the block on Suggs, I kind of went with force and banged it against the backboard really hard,” he said on the postgame podium, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
Williamson didn't play in Friday's 111-109 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, a defeat that could loom extremely large to the Pelicans' hopes of avoiding the play-in tournament. They enter Sunday's matchup with the Suns as losers of four straight games, in seventh place in the Western Conference at 45-32. Though New Orleans is just one game behind the Suns in sixth, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and company own the head-to-head tiebreaker between the teams following their victory over the Pelicans on April 1st.
Green's team also sits just a half game ahead of the eighth-place Los Angeles Lakers and one game in front of the ninth-place Sacramento Kings, at risk of not only being relegated to the play-in tournament, but being forced to open it on the road or even win two games to advance to the playoffs. New Orleans needs to beat Los Angeles in the season finale to have a chance at winning that tiebreaker, but already owns the tiebreaker over the Kings after sweeping their fourth earlier matchups this season.
Brandon Ingram still sidelined as postseason dawns
Even with Williamson playing in the desert on Sunday, the Pelicans won't be at full-strength. Brandon Ingram has already been ruled out for New Orleans' next two games as he continues recovering from a bone bruise in his left knee that's sidelined him since March 21st.
“New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, who was diagnosed with a left knee bone contusion as the result of hyperextending his knee on March 21, was re-evaluated this morning. Ingram has been cleared to begin individual on-court workouts and will gradually increase the intensity of his rehabilitation schedule,” the team announced on Sunday. “Ingram will miss the Pelicans’ next two games. A return to play date has not yet been determined.”
The Pelicans have gone just 3-5 without Ingram, tumbling down a crowded Western Conference standings at the worst possible time. Though Ingram will be missed in Phoenix, at least there's a chance he returns to the floor for New Orleans' gauntlet of a finish to the 82-game grind.
Before meeting the Lakers in a season-ending matchup that could be rife with postseason implications, the Pelicans face off with the Kings and Golden State Warriors in a tough back-to-back—a stretch bound to go a long way toward deciding their playoff path.
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