New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson will play against the Utah Jazz on Thursday, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Williamson will play in short bursts.
New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson will play today against the Utah Jazz in the restart opener, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 30, 2020
Williamson appeared in 19 games for the Pelicans before the 2019-20 season was suspended in March. He averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
New Orleans went 10-9 with Williamson in the lineup.
Williamson returned to Orlando last week after leaving the NBA bubble for eight days because of a family emergency. The rookie had access to a hoop during the hiatus, so Williamson was able to stay in shape and work on his game.
New Orleans is in 10th place in the Western Conference standings. To make the 2020 playoffs, the Pelicans have to perform very well during their eight seeding games and hope that the Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings don’t succeed.
Once the seeding games start, the Pelicans will need Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, JJ Redick, Josh Hart and Zion Williamson to essentially play like All-Stars for the team to have any chance of overtaking Ja Morant and the Grizzlies for the eighth spot in the Western Conference standings.
However, even if the Pelicans don’t overtake the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed, they can force a play-in round if they hold the No. 9 spot and are within four games of that final spot. The winner of the eighth seed will most likely face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2020 playoffs.
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