If a few shots arent falling, then mix it up: get to the paint, get to the free throw line, throw the ball down to (Valaninas). Breaking down the Golden State-Los Angeles matchup with 3 things to watch, 1 X-factor and a series prediction. But the No. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. Any time youre down, especially an All-Star like him, youre going to miss him and we did tonight, Barrett said. Its great playing with a guy like that, Williamson told reporters on Friday, referencing Ball. But watching Valaninas this year underscores how he hasnt been same force he was during his first season with the Pelicans. 1 defense since the All-Star break, the most defensive boards since the break, the leagues best 3-point shooting team in the clutch. To answer key questions, uncover hidden truths and peel back the curtain on why some numbers matter more than others. He's also the first player to do this at all in Pelicans history. percentage and second in true shooting percentage, a barren wasteland between the paint and 3-point line. But among 163 players with at least 100 shots both inside and outside, only Jabari Parker has a bigger differential between his field goal percentage in the paint and his effective field goal percentage from outside the paint. No team has played more clutch games than the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have been within five in the last five in 31 (69%) of their 48 games. The Miami Heat needed all season to turn into the team they expected, so no way Butler wants to miss a minute of it now. I was in Mexico, I was standing over I dont remember what course I was playing but I was standing over, I was about 100 yards in, and there was nothing. Latest on New Orleans Pelicans power forward Zion Williamson including news, stats, videos, highlights and more on ESPN The pre-playoffs conventional wisdom on how this series might play out became the reality of Game 7: Curry and the Warriors are going to get theirs, could the Kings score with them when it matters? Al Horford was out for the night for Oklahoma City, which meant they threw their long-and-athletic but young and inexperienced big men such as Isaiah Roby out to defend Nikola Jokic. The player closest to Williamson is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is averaging 16.9points per game in the paint. 1 pick doesnt have to be an above-average 3-point shooter to be a problem for opposing defenses, especially when hes playing the five and surrounded by four other guys that can shoot. Each week during the season, NBA.com writer John Schuhmann surveys the league to compile stats and notes for his in-depth Power Rankings. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter. Butler gave the Heat a good start in a renewal of what was once a fierce rivalry, with the teams meeting four straight years from 1997-2000. Happy Friday! This season, that number has plummeted to 59.8percent. It would also help if Green played him next to another point guard more often. And he's getting better at reading defences. In particular, McCollum tends to rely on his own offense rather than moving the ball and allowing the offense to breathe when it starts to break down. Back-to-back bad closeouts from Zion leads to five quick points for Utah. Ben Simmons and the 76ers have improved on defense since the break, despite the absence of Joel Embiid. Explore all New Orleans Pelicans NBA player stats - including scoring, rebounding, shooting, assists & more! Our aim? According to Second Spectrum tracking, Williamson had the ball for 5% of the time he was on the floor last season. The only blemish on an otherwise sterling campaign was Williamson's diminished 3-point shooting percentage. This season, there are seven players (whove played at least 500 minutes) in the Jimmy Butler Club: There are also two players with more blocks than personal fouls: Rudy Gobert (138, 112) and Jarrett Allen (74, 70). It seems that Larry Nance Jr. or Jaxson Hayes, while less talented, do a better job of giving this seasons team what it needs on both ends. Williamson plays with so much force and controls it so well that it makes backing off of him tricky. Second, it's the most paint pointsanyone has averaged in a single season in almost two decades. That led to stat lines like 37 points, 15 rebounds, and 8 assist even with his team shooting an abysmal 18 percent from 3. The Kings have a young core with Fox, Sabonis, Keegan Murray, Huerter, Monk, etc. His 3-point shot would be the one nit-picking outlier of his offensive arsenal. With their loss to the Clippers on Tuesday (in which they led by one with less than three minutes to go), the Mavs are 10-13 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes. Weve got to have more attention to detail. When McCollum, Ingram and Williamson play together, the Pels have a staggering plus-19.5 net rating this year. Build your customFanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis onNew Orleans Pelicans and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more. Jokic finished the night with 27 points on 21 shots, 12 rebounds, and six assists in a 119-101 Denver win. This season, 71.3% of Zions shots come at the rim and 96.6% are within 10 feet of the basket. The truth is, his ceiling is high and his bag is deep, but until NBA defenses find a way to limit him in the paint, we wont see him digging too deeply. Williamson's body control is incredible. He's too big and strong for most guards and too quick and athletic for mostbigs. Explore all New Orleans Pelicans NBA player stats - including scoring, rebounding, shooting, assists & more! We believe that we can do something special.. With the increase in minutes at the four, Davis has seen an increase in the percentage of his shots that have come from outside the paint. Hes missed the last 32 games and is a week away from being re-evaluated for a possible return this season. Were together, at home, on the road, through the good and through the bad. Obi Toppin will start in his place. To be clear, Williamsons paint dominance is comparable to Shaquille ONeals, but they are achieved in different ways. Copyright 2023 Sporting News Holdings Limited. First, it's the highest mark in the league. Sabonis will be an All-NBA center this season, but at the very least the Kings need the right front-line players next to him to play off his strengths to take the next step. Ja Morant is probably going to be a top-three pick in the 2019 NBA Draft because of his star potential. After the ball goes out of bounds, New Orleans immediately gives the ball back to Zion and he adjusts. In this clip, you can see Williamson beat his primary defender off the dribble and Joel Embiid rotate over to block his layup attempt. Lets break down a few of the problems: The most important skill in the modern NBA is the one the Pelicans lack the most. In his second season, Zion Williamson has not extended his range. Spacing has been a constant issue for this team, even when its two best shooters CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy are on the floor together. Kevin Huerter shot 2-of-9. So, because he had space he was able to attack and be really aggressive.. He's slightly undersized to play power forward or centre at 6-foot-6, but he has the size to power his way through bigger defenders when he gets intothe paint. Davis still ranks fifth in the league with 13.2 points in the paint per game. Time will tell if Davis continues to play almost twice as much at the four as he does at the five, though the percentage of his shots that have come in the paint hasnt been much higher when hes played center (59%) than it has when hes played next to McGee or Howard (57%). According to NBA.com , that's how many points per game Zion Williamson is averaging in the paint this season. Scott Rafferty is a Senior NBA Editor for The Sporting News. Smart stuff.). Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images Back in the spring, after he averaged 26 points per The Kings have hard choices to make. When McCollum plays without any other point guards, the Pels are outscored by 2.7 points per 100 possessions. WebWilliamson finished his rookie season averaging 22.5 points on 58.3 percent shooting from the floor, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. Your default site has been set for 7 days, Stat Just Happened: Zion Williamson is dominating the paint in a way we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal-type force of nature with a point guard skill set. Recently, Giannis Antetokounmpos Finals MVP has done great work for the Anti-Bag Twitter campaign. (Shot Chart) And over the last 23 games, its over 11% (and almost even with that of Brandon Ingram). Getting Randle back would be a good start. Its an admirable philosophy, one that many developing young players could benefit from. Jimmy Butler is a master at drawing fouls. It gives CJ more of a balance being on the floor where he doesnt have to have the ball in his hands and initiate every time, Green said. Remember, he missed the entire 2021-2022 season. Zion Williamson | Duke | PF | 6-7 but his offense outside the paint is where he can most improve as a prospect. @StephenCurry30 went off the man dropped 50 https://t.co/jnbpt4Vpb3 pic.twitter.com/LTd3V0X1Wf, Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 30, 2023, Andy Murray (@andy_murray) April 30, 2023. The Lakers win in Brooklyn on Thursday was the first game that either JaVale McGee (who was out with an illness) or Dwight Howard has missed this season, and the two centers have combined to average a little more than 37 minutes per game. Harrison Barnes is a free agent and may be priced out of what the Kings want to spend. Over the last 10 years, Kawhi Leonard (four times, including this season) and Tyus Jones (three times, including this season) are the only players whove had more steals than personal fouls (with a minimum of 500 minutes played) more than twice. Jakob Poeltl picked up Ball and DeRozan was forced to match up with Williamson trailing the play. Losing perhaps the most dominant paint scorer in the game certainly changes the dynamic drastically. They have stocked up on a number of young players the team would have imagined could grow and develop alongside Williamson, but instead, most have struggled to adjust to life in the NBA. Instead, those opportunities have been few and far between, and the results havent been nearly as successful when they occur. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. The last five games have been the highest-scoring stretch (32.4 ppg) of Williamsons career. 3-point shooting: A. Williams, who made 25.5% of his college 3-point shots in two years, made just one of his first eight deep shots as a pro. * The 54% is if you call the 6-8 Julius Randle the center in last seasons Davis-Randle frontline. The start of Zion Williamsons NBA career hasnt come easy. Add that number to the many What-Ifs? from this season. One reason is their performance in close games. Playing with a poorly built roster, under his second coach (who has since been fired), at just 20 years old, Williamson put up historic numbers averaging 27.0 Williamson started alongside Derrick Favors and, through the first three quarters, he had played 9:50 at power forward and just 1:51 at center. The 37 games hes missed this season have certainly made it difficult for Ingram to gain a rhythm. As he has done since college, Curry digs deep when everything is on the line and proves his doubters wrong this time with 50 points including seven 3-pointers, plus eight rebounds and six assists thrown in. He added a 3-pointer during it, but his biggest contribution was with his outlet passing. Some people (including me) said they had one of the deepest rosters in the NBA. He has a good enough handle to blow by defenders who press up on him. While Ingrams two-month absence due to a toe injury has been the main cause of his rocky season, there have been some issues even when he does take the court. 3-point shooting: A. Williams, who made 25.5% of his college 3-point shots in two years, made just one of his first eight deep shots as a pro. Andrew Wiggins is going to get the LeBron assignment and generally has done well defending him, but the Warriors need Wiggins to have a series like he did in the Finals last year. Also, 44 percentof his baskets were unassisted, similar numbers to Jaylen Brown and Tyler Herro. Still, 67.4% (1.35 points per attempt) is a great rate of return. His 20.3 points in the paint per game were the most in a season since Shaquille ONeals 1999-00 MVP season. ', Its just Steph Curry. On Wednesday, one of Williamsons buckets was a direct result of Lonzo Ball pushing the ball after a Spurs score. Its a matchup the Warriors can win, but they have to execute at a high level. The Lakers defense has been great in those minutes with him at the five, but the offense has been sub-par (104.8 points scored per 100 possessions), in part because Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, James and Troy Daniels have all shot worse from 3-point range in those minutes (30% combined) than they have otherwise. NBA players and a few celebrities were blown away and went to Twitter to react. Ball isnt just good a pushing the pace via the dribble. Were trying to get him to up that to four or five. With better luck in close games, the Mavs might be in second place in the West instead of sixth. If his defender anticipates the screen, he'll take off in the other direction. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Durant, Lillard, NBA Twitter react to Curry dropping 50 in Game 7, NBA playoffs first round results, schedule, times and where to watch, There will be a Game 7 Monk, Fox run Kings past Warriors for win, Knicks Julius Randle out for Game 1 vs. Miami Heat, Three things to watch: Miami Heat renew rivalry with New York Knicks, Butler leads Heat to Game 1 win on road against shorthanded Knicks, step-back three in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA finals. 1 overall pick in 2019, is averaging 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists, but Zion Williamson has averaged 32.4 points over his last five games. More than just spacing, on Tuesday New Orleans settling for Brandon Ingram or Zion or other players going at the Jazz in isolation rather than having player movement. Zion Lateef Williamson, a kid from South Carolina. Dunking on kids half his size in High School. Every NBA team's biggest question mark for the 2021-22 season, NBA season preview: 5 players most likely to be first-time All-Stars. NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) April 30, 2023. 71.4: This is Williamsons shooting percentage this preseason.No, not his free throw percentage. He's slightly undersized to play power forward or centre at 6-foot-6, but he has the size to power his way through bigger defenders when he gets intothe paint. The whole point of having a player like Valaninas is to make the game steadier when things slow down and take advantage of having a capable post scorer to maneuver one-on-one. What makes Williamson unique in those situations is well, a number of things. Per Cleaning The Glass, the Pelicans current starting lineup is scoring just 88.1 points per 100 possessions in half-court situations, which is one step above punting the ball into the stands on every possession. He's gone from being more ofa finisher to more of aplaymaker, getting more opportunities to create for himself out of isolation and in the pick-and-roll. Here are some things of note as we head into the Week 14 weekend. (By the way, notice how low Steven Adams set the screen for Williamson? Interestingly, all those preseason minutes were played with Brandon Ingram, Nicolo Melli or Kenrich Williams playing the four alongside Williamson. He is a New Orleans native. Will the East finally overtake the West in the 2021-22 NBA season? For example, Zion as a point forward bringing the ball up, which drags opposing bigs out into space, then Zion blows right by them. While Myles Turner is turning heads down low, T.J. McConnell is leading with effort in the backcourt. 1 when they toppled Milwaukee in the first round. That went about as well as you think it did. But theres more to the story of this teams shocking demise. John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. Hard not to be skeptical of the 3-point shooting (though it's great that he shot without hesitation), but what got an audible "Wow!" Good luck making up those 45 points and getting a win. In Tuesdays loss to the Lakers, he had three turnovers in the first quarter that drained the energy from the building. The experience and execution of Chris Paul (who has shot 54% on 69 clutch shots) has been huge, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is also 24-for-36 (67%) with the score within five in the last five. Back then, they had one of the best records in the Western Conference, with Zion Williamson playing at an All-NBA level. The New Orleans Pelicans have surrounded Zion Williamson with the pieces that should help him flourish in Year 1. Including his preseason minutes, New Orleans is a plus-52 in 54:03 with Williamson at center. 2021 Zion Williamson: 20-1972007 Dwight Howard: 21-631993 Shaquille O'Neal: 21-248, Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) January 20, 2021. Your default site has been set for 7 days, Stat Just Happened: Zion Williamson is dominating the paint in a way we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal-type force of nature with a point guard skill set. Dropping a 7-foot-4 centre with a 7-foot-10 wingspan to the paint should work but Marjanovic probably wasn't expecting Williamson to take off around the dotted line and jump so high that he could softly lay the ball in. Zion Williamson played his first regular season debut on Thursday, registering 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and five turnovers in a little over 18 minutes in the Pelicans 121-117 loss to the Spurs. They leverage their superior advantage in height with strength and vertical leaping ability, enabling them to protect the paint. Hes more methodical with the ball in pick-and-roll situations, which allows him to operate in the midrange area, where hes most comfortable. Last season, Butler (103 steals, 81 personal fouls) and Jones (59, 44) were the only two players that did it. UPDATE: The Knicks have made it official, Julius Randle is out for Game 1 vs. Miami. Rockets guard struggling to hit jumpers as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats, Plus, a look at zone defense and Al Horford's play without Joel Embiid, Clippers star in midst of worst shooting season as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats. There are also times when the Pels need a perimeter player who can get into the paint and collapse the defense. If anything, the offense has been even yuckier whenever Valaninas is on the court. He reinjured his ankle in Game 5 against Cleveland after missing the final five games of the regular season and hadnt done much since the Knicks returned to practice. And they dont just run off live rebounds and turnovers. In a season full of comically awful numbers, this one has jumped out the most: The Pelicans normal starting lineup without Zion (McCollum, Jones, Ingram, Murphy and Valaninas) is getting outscored by a whopping 26.3 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. Nothing worked consistently. Weve been rewarded for our patience with the debut of the No. Its not as easy to see the decline in Valaninas game based on his numbers. He still has a lot of developingto do imagine him with even a semi-reliable jump shot and yethe's already one of the league's most dominant scorers, a 20-year-old who is doing things we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal. Williamson finished 14th in true shooting percentage and fourth in PER last season, largely because he refused to settle for shots he wasnt comfortable taking. An unheated garage, a cool basement or any other well-insulated cool building or shed will work. WebZion Williamson is an obvious choice here after playing in only 29 games. All nine of their clutch shots were 3-point attempts and they made just two of the nine. Of course, two possessions after that lob over DeRozan, Williamson was too quick for Poeltl after the Spurs back-up center blocked Williamsons initial shot. And he once again lived up to the billing. Were 54% through the 2019-20 season. The Knicks won the last three of those but have work to do if theyre going to take this one. It was an all-time performance from an all-time great. They gradually narrowed the deficit before halftime, blew by the Knicks with a 21-5 run in the third quarter and pulled away to a double-digit lead in the fourth. Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the Pelicans' Play-In Matchup against the Thunder, Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com reports. Through December, the Pelicans ranked eighth in the NBA in points scored per 100 possessions, fourth in points in the paint, second in free-throw attempts and 11th in 3-point percentage. Gabe Vincent scored 20 points for the Heat, who became the sixth No. The NBA season is in full swing, and we will be here each weekday with the NBC Sports daily roundup Three Things to Know everything you might have missed in the Association, every key moment from the night before in one place. Zion Williamson did something last season that we haven't seen in a very, very long time. The paint dust, they say, matches paint dust from the Kenworth Trucking Co. in Renton where Ridgway worked for years. Stan Van Gundy introduced the NBA world to Point Zion this past season. 17, and Marcia Chapman, 31, whose Instead of driving into the same fate, Williamson stops and pulls up for a smooth jumper, something thats been in his bag since he first started going viral as a teen. Zion also is moving better off the ball this season. Then he played 6:37 at center in the fourth quarter, when he scored 17 of his 22 points. Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the If his three-point shooting (30.4 percent for Boulogne-Levallois in France's Pro A league) continues to lag, the Pistons may not get the extra breathing room they want for their offense. Shooting was the main issue the team shouldve addressed at the trade deadline. Officially, according to Tom Thibodeau, Knicks forward Julius Rankle will be a game-time decision with his sprained ankle. Remember, he missed the entire 2021-2022 season. It brings to an end one of the best, highest-level first-round series in recent memory. The Pelicans have won four of the five to climb within a game in the loss column of the ninth-place Warriors, with all three head-to-head matchups still to come. Many of his per-minute statistics look the same as last season. No wonder everything on offense looks difficult for them. Those two plays are a microcosm of Zion Williamsons NBA career. No one should expect to make money from the picks and predictions discussed on this website. That figure jumps to 106.6 in half-court sets when the four other starters play with someone other than Valaninas. Since then, the Pelicans are 26th in offensive rating, 14th in points in the paint and have been held under 100 points more times (six) than theyve reached 120 (five). Terry Roziers 12-for-23 (52%) is the best mark among 16 players with at least 20 attempts. He talked about it with pro golfers Will Lowery and Doug Smith on the first episode of NBCs new Beyond the Fairway podcast. They did hold off a Wizards comeback on Tuesday, with Rozier getting a couple of key 2-point buckets late. With Jimmy Butler hobbled late by an ankle injury, Miami gets big performances from Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love to take the series opener in New York. That is by far the worst figure of any five-man lineup with at least 300 possessions this season. At 33-36, they sit in 12th place in the West, a half game out of the final Play-In position. The 6-foot-7 Williamson, in his second season out of Duke after becoming the No. Copyright 2023 Sporting News Holdings Limited. Theres no question the front office will be proactive in finding a solution in the offseason. In the 2019 Draft, in addition to Zion Williamson, the Pelicans also got Jason Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. According to NBA.com , the New Orleans Pelicans star averaged 20.3 points per game in the paint. (They were outscored, 26-21, with Williamson at the four.) Even if a team thinks theyhave one player who has a decent shot at hanging with him, they almost certainly don't have two, making switching against the Pelicans adangerous game.
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