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Zion Williamson will miss extended time with a Grade 2 adductor strain and be re-evaluated in three weeks as the Pelicans slide to 3-18 on the season.
Zion Williamson is going to be out for a while due to a right adductor injury, the New Orleans Pelicans announced on Tuesday. The team said he has a grade 2 strain in his right hip adductor, which means he’s going to need some time to recover. Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that Zion will get rechecked in about three weeks.
This isn’t Zion’s first time sidelined this season. Earlier, he missed 11 games, including eight straight in November because of a hamstring injury. After finally coming back from that, he missed a couple of games again, those were games two of back-to-back matchups, where teams tend to rest stars.
Zion, now 25, has been averaging 22.1 points and 5.6 rebounds over 10 games this season. This is his seventh year with the Pelicans. But since he was picked first overall in the 2019 NBA Draft, he’s only played 224 of a possible 493 games, that’s less than half according to ESPN Research.
The Pelicans have really struggled this season, sitting at the bottom with a 3-18 record. Their performance on the court looks a lot better when Zion is playing: they have a net efficiency of -3.0 with him, but it drops sharply to -13.9 when he’s off, again from ESPN stats.
Shams Charania shared the news on social media, emphasizing that Zion will miss “extended time” with this new injury and will be reassessed in three weeks. He noted Zion had just returned on November 19 after missing a bit more than two weeks due to the hamstring, playing in five out of seven games before this new setback.
This is a tough blow for the Pelicans, who now face a long stretch without their star forward for much of December, and possibly even into next year. Without Zion, Saddiq Bey will likely have to step up and take on a bigger role in their weakened frontcourt. Freshman Derik Queen will also be getting plenty of minutes while Zion recovers.
So, the Pelicans are really feeling the heat as they try to navigate a tough season without one of their best players in action.
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