Zion Williamson delivered another All-Star caliber performance against the Los Angeles Clippers Friday night, with 34 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in the New Orleans Pelicans” 112-104 win over Los Angeles. This gives the Pelicans a 3-1 series victory over the Clippers this season and closes the gap between the two teams in the standings to just two games. The Clippers sit in 4th place in the West, the Pelicans not far behind in 5th place.
It was an important win for New Orleans, but more than that, it showed once again this season that the Clippers don’t really have an answer for Williamson. Clippers coach Ty Lue talked about it after the loss, not only about the dominance Williamson displayed Friday night, but about the entire season against Los Angeles.
“Zion, in the three games they’ve won this year, three out of four, he dominated us the last six minutes of the third quarter – like we talked about before the game – and the whole fourth. [quarter]” said Lue.
In four games against the Clippers this season, Williamson has averaged 24.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, five assists and 1.8 steals and is shooting 52.1 percent from the field. He’s the reason the Pelicans have won three of their four matchups against the Clippers, and Friday night was just the latest example.
As Lue mentioned, Williamson scored 16 of his 34 points in the third quarter and went a perfect 7 of 7 from the floor. He worked his way into a variety of floaters and layups and simply used his strength and strength to force his way to the rim and finish with finesse around the basket. And we already know that when Williamson goes downhill, he’s a nightmare to contain, and in back-to-back scores for the former No. 1 overall pick, he showed why.
During this first trip, he obtained Mason Plumlée on an island on the perimeter. Although Plumlee matched Williamson well in size and did a good job moving his feet so as not to get burned when the Pelicans forward took his first step, Williamson just lowered his shoulder a bit, is headed to the rim, and even when the defense collapsed on him, he managed to make a balanced, quality shot.
A few possessions later, with just 3.5 seconds left in the third quarter, Williamson raced across the country, outrunning all five Clippers defenders with insane ease to make a layup just before the buzzer.
During Friday’s match, PJ Tucker was Williamson’s main defender. Although Tucker is the archetypal ideal player to defend Williamson, he has done little to slow down the Pelicans forward. The same thing happened earlier in the season when Tucker was assigned guard Williamson, and he had 32 points in a November 24 victory. The Clippers also tried to stick Ivica Zubac on Williamson, but he ends up doing the same thing he did with Plumlee: pulling him to the perimeter, forcing him to defend in space, then simply using his strength to force his way to the basket.
Although the Clippers have several strong individual defenders, Williamson poses a unique threat due to his strength, athleticism and ability to handle the ball. He can also be dangerous off the ball, especially as a cutter, because once he’s on his way to the basket, you’ll either try to foul him or simply get out of the way.
The only time the Clippers managed to contain Williamson this season was in a January 5 meeting, the only game Los Angeles won. Williamson was held to 12 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the floor in 19 minutes. But that’s not even an accurate description, considering Williamson left that game in the third quarter with a bruised right leg.
And it’s not just Williamson’s offense. His teammate, Trey Murphy, spoke about Williamson’s added commitment on the defensive side of the ball, an area in which he has struggled to remain consistent in the past. But against the Clippers and over the course of the season, he became more committed to improving on that front.
“At the end of the game, I was like, ‘I got Kawhi,’ and he was like, ‘No, I got him,’ and I was like, ‘Hey man, you got him then ;I’m not going to fight you on that one,'” Murphy said. “That’s what you expect from your stars, you want them to rise to the challenge, and he understands what time it is. He understands what time of the season it is, and if you want to win in the playoffs and that you want To be a star in the playoffs you have to play on both sides of the ball. So I think that’s an important thing for [Zion]”.
While Friday’s game doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, with the Clippers still having a pretty comfortable lead over the Pelicans for fourth place in the West, where things get uncomfortable is the fact that these two teams could very well face each other in the playoffs. If the playoffs started today, the Clippers would host the Pelicans in the first round, and given New Orleans’ dominance over Los Angeles this season, especially Williamson’s solid play, I wouldn’t feel too confident if I was the Clippers about my chances of succeeding. he went out in the first round.
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