OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans Play-in game injury report: Will Zion play?

The NBA regular season is over and 12 teams already qualified for the playoffs, but there are another eight that will have to keep fighting to get to that stage of the competition.

One of those eight teams -which finished the season among seventh and tenth spots in each Conference, is New Orleans. The Pelicans managed to grab one of the Play-In Tournament positions by finishing ninth in the West, with a record of 42 wins and 40 defeats.

Willie Green’s men, who will have to win two games to get to the main playoffs, will first face Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

Will Zion Williams play against the Thunder?

The Pelicans will be aiming to record a 10th win in their last 13 games when they play against OKC, but the bad news for the Pelicans is that Williamson isn’t ready to help his teammates in their next game.

According to NBA insider Shams Charania, the power forward will probably miss the whole Play-In Tournament.

“From what I’m told, the Pelicans believe he’s not even close to getting back on the floor,” Charania told Pat McAfee on Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.

“From what I’m told, there are no expectations from the Pelicans that he will be on the floor at any point in the first round of the playoffs. He’s not gonna play in the Play-In Tournament games this week. The hope is that maybe he begins to practice at some point in the first round or do more”, he added.

Last week, the franchise executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said that Zion would not have enough time to get in proper condition for the Play-In.

“If you just look at the logistics of where we are, it’s not possible to get the work in that would put him in a five-on-five workout in time [to play in] any play-in [tournament game],” Griffin stated.

Williamson has averaged 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game in 29 games this season.