More bad news for Duke basketball great Zion Williamson
The New Orleans Pelicans, who were sitting pretty at 18-8 in mid-December, have lost 11 of their last 14 games. They sit only one game above .500 and No. 7 in the Western Conference standings. Injuries to the two Duke basketball talents in their preferred starting lineup, Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, are to blame for recent woes.
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Although Ingram has been back for a few weeks after missing 29 straight games with a toe injury, Williamson has now missed 20 straight with a right hamstring injury and is likely to miss at least a dozen or so more.
Williamson, a voted-in starter for Sunday's NBA All-Star Game and at one point an MVP candidate, recently reaggravated his injury, New Orleans Pelicans basketball operations chief David Griffin told the media over the weekend.
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According to Griffin, the 6-foot-6, 285-pound forward and former No. 1 overall draft pick will be out "multiple weeks past All-Star break."
That update is particularly disappointing given the fact that Zion Williamson had recovered enough to participate in 3-on-3 practice drills with the expectation of returning soon after the All-Star break. Now, there's no telling how long he'll be out.
"Unfortunately, this is an injury that has a very high incidence of recurrence," Griffin noted. "It's nothing he did wrong to bring this about...It's an injury that's tricky and hard to navigate."
New Orleans is 6-14 since Williamson sustained the injury in early January. The 22-year-old, averaging 26.0 points and 7.0 rebounds across 29 appearances this season, has played only 114 games in his four-year NBA career.
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