No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson made his presence felt on Wednesday.
After managing just five points through the first three-quarters of play, Williamson erupted during a three-minute stretch in the fourth quarter to score 17 straight points for the Pelicans. Williamson shot 8-of-11 in the game, including 6-of-8 in the fourth quarter.
The Pelicans trailed the Spurs for much of the evening but the outburst by Williamson enabled his team to take a brief, one-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Spurs eventually reclaimed the lead and held on for the 121-117 victory to spoil the debut of Williamson.
After the Spurs opted to leave Williamson open throughout the night, the rookie drained four wide-open 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. During his brief takeover, Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry twice tried to sub Williamson out of the game but left him in during his hot streak.
UNREAL
Zion went off for 22 PTS and went 4/4 from 3PT in 18 minutes in his NBA debut 🔥 pic.twitter.com/j1e5SgooGH
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 23, 2020
Williamson played roughly four minutes in each of the first three periods for the Pelicans before logging seven minutes of action in the fourth quarter as his hot play forced Gentry to keep him in the game.
As Williamson seemingly caught fire late, his play sent social media into a frenzy with “Zion” quickly taking ownership of the No. 1 trending topic in the United States.
yesssir 🤫 @Zionwilliamson
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) January 23, 2020
ZION. HAS. ARRIVED. 😤
— ESPN (@espn) January 23, 2020
OMG zion, ok Zion, damn zion and bro Zion are all trending…
Yup that pretty much sums it up.
— Cassidy Hubbarth (@CassidyHubbarth) January 23, 2020
"WE WANT ZION" chants are happening at Smoothie King Center. I'm not used to this. I'm used to hearing "WE WANT TACOS" at Staples Center.
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 23, 2020
He really scored 17 points in a 3-minute stretch.
— Nicola Lupo (@NicolaLupo99) January 23, 2020
Zion Williamson of the @PelicansNBA is the first player ever to make 4 or more threes without a miss in his NBA debut.#WontBowDown
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) January 23, 2020
Zion is just a volcano of buckets
— Zion Wobinson (@WorldWideWob) January 23, 2020
Zion already has more 3-pointers than Ben Simmons this season. 😳 pic.twitter.com/2kmOqUMhrt
— theScore (@theScore) January 23, 2020
Zion Williamson update: pic.twitter.com/dRC6vvfVQE
— InsideHoops.com NBA (@InsideHoops) January 23, 2020
Everyone in the 1st half: “Don’t judge Zion after one game.”
Everyone in the 2nd half: “ZION WILLIAMSON IS GOING TO BE THE GREASTEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME.”
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) January 23, 2020
That was a fun stretch in the 4th for Zion. Pelicans are going to be so fun to watch with him in the lineup. 🔥
— Chris Manning (@LD2K) January 23, 2020
Zion giving the people what they want lmao
— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) January 23, 2020
I’ve seen all I need to see already but phew Zion is going to be a PROBLEM
— Kayla Grey (@Kayla_Grey) January 23, 2020
Zion is playing so well that not even Mark Jackson could ruin this moment for me.
— Christian Rivas (@RadRivas) January 23, 2020
Zion from range was not on the scouting report! Lol. Made em pay.
— R. Lark 🏁 (@RML_Ent) January 23, 2020
After making his debut on Wednesday, Williamson and the Pelicans return to action on Friday at home against the Denver Nuggets with tip-off set for 8 p.m. ET.
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