The Pelicans and Zion Williamson thought the days of minutes restrictions melted away with the snow. After gingerly bringing the rookie forward along for his debut and in the ensuing weeks, the Pelicans eventually took the chains entirely by February.
But an odd set of circumstances in an already odd setting led to Williamson being quarantined inside the NBA’s bubble until Tuesday afternoon. With barely two practices after a week-long layoff before Thursday’s game, the minutes restriction was brought back.
Much like the first go-round, Williamson was heavily limited in his return to the court against the Jazz, playing just 15 minutes. And like his debut where he played 18 minutes, the Pelicans fell late in a close game.
Thursday’s opener inside the bubble against the Jazz saw the Pelicans squander a lead as big as 16 by scoring just 17 fourth-quarter points to fall to Utah 106-104.
A visibly frustrated Alvin Gentry noted multiple times in his postgame presser that the team’s medical staff set a minutes limit which was met early in the fourth.
“Of course we wish we could have played him down the stretch,” Gentry said. “But he had used the minutes that were given to us. That’s the way it is. We weren’t going to stick him back out there. Our medical people said that we played him in the minutes that was allowed (for) us to play him and we’ll just move on.
“I thought he looked good. He had some good moments. Obviously, we’re a much better and much different basketball team when he’s out on the floor.”
Gentry refused to dive any deeper on the minutes restrictions for Williamson, instead directing all questions to the training staff that decided the minutes. He also was unsure how long the minutes restriction would be in place.
“That’s something that you’re going to have to ask our medical team,” Gentry said. “I don’t know what the numbers are or anything. That’s something you’ll have to ask the medical team.”
Williamson verbalized his anger with being forced to the bench to watch his team struggle down the stretch. In his brief time on the court, he scored 13 points and was the team’s fourth-leading scorer.
Conditioning wasn’t the main reason for his restriction as Williamson talked about sitting on the bench late during his presser after the game.
“It’s very tough,” he said. “As a competitor, I do want to be out there to do whatever I can to help my team win.
“(It’s) not even just conditioning. It’s just getting my flow to the game back. This is the NBA. These are the best players in the world. You want to feel comfortable. I don’t want to hurt my team more than I help them.”
Neither Gentry nor Williamson knows how long the restrictions will last, though the latter hypothesized it’d be a handful more games. But with only eight games in the bubble and the Pelicans on the outside looking in of the playoff race, patience will be running thin.
“Honestly, I don’t know how long it’ll take,” Williamson said. “I guess maybe a couple games. It is frustrating but it’s not so frustrating because they could probably not even let me play. I’m able to play so I’m going to do as much as I can while I’m out there.
“They weren’t holding me back. Yeah, I did want to be out there. But we’re just working my way back into my flow.”
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