The New Orleans Pelicans have been restricting Zion Williamson since he returned from a 27-game absence due to a hamstring injury.
But opponents are having a hard time restricting him. The latest to fail the test was the Los Angeles Clippers, who saw Williamson record his second career triple-double in the host Pelicans’ 127-120 victory on Tuesday night.
The Orlando Magic will try their luck against Williamson when they visit the Pelicans on Thursday night.
Williamson had 22 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds while playing 32-plus minutes for just the second time in the 21 games he has played in since he returned on Jan. 7.
His first triple-double came just 13 days earlier when he had 27 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a 124-116 victory at Phoenix.
“When he makes up his mind that he’s going to attack, there’s really nothing teams can do, and he’s been doing that lately,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “Even in limited minutes, he’s stepping on the floor with an attack mentality.
“He’s rebounding, he’s defending, he’s sharing the basketball with his teammates, and he’s scoring. When he’s playing at this level, he’s unguardable.”
The Pelicans have had seven double-figure scorers in each of their last three games, including a 107-104 loss to visiting Memphis on Sunday when Williamson didn’t play because the Pelicans aren’t allowing him to play on consecutive nights.
“This season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to,” Williamson said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t build into something next year, build into better habits.”
The Magic have lost six of their last seven games and are just 10-22 since the start of 2025, but they’re still well-positioned to qualify for the play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference.
The Magic’s latest outing — a 97-84 loss at Houston on Monday — left them with a lot to work on if they’re going to regain the form they showed in starting the season 15-7.
Orlando allowed the most total rebounds (63) and the most offensive rebounds (20) that it has in a game this season.
“That was the game right there, essentially,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We turned them over. We got out (to run) a little bit, but 20 offensive rebounds is very difficult to overcome in game like that.”
Orlando shot just 32.6 percent from the floor and 25 percent on 3-pointers.
“We have to do a better job of moving the ball from side to side,” center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “Offensively we kind of fell into the one-pass shots. Then we had to exert our energy more on defense. That definitely drains a team a little bit. We have to do a better job of trusting the process a little bit more.”
The Magic hope this game against New Orleans can have an effect on them similar to the teams’ first meeting. Orlando never trailed as it beat the visiting Pelicans 115-88 on Nov. 8. The victory not only ended a five-game losing streak, but started a six-game winning streak and a stretch of 12 wins in 13 games.
