Interim New Orleans coach James Borrego wants to see an aggressive, attack-minded Zion Williamson from the opening tip, when the Pelicans seek to end a four-game skid with a victory against the visiting Houston Rockets on Sunday.
Williamson took the game by the scruff of the neck in the third quarter of New Orleans’ 119-106 road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday. He scored 12 points in nine minutes during the period.
He was less impactful, but still solid, in the first half as Toronto built a match-winning lead.
Borrego’s desire to involve Williamson more early came with the Pelicans (25-50) missing key contributors Trey Murphy III (ankle) and Dejounte Murray (Achilles) against the Raptors.
Murphy is averaging a team-best 21.7 points per game this season; Williamson is just behind him with 21.4 points per game.
Murray is averaging 17.2 points and 6.5 assists in 12 games after missing more than a year with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
“We do need to get him (Williamson) off to quicker starts,” Borrego said. “We do need that aggression, especially when Trey’s out, and Dejounte. Having those two guys out — they generate a lot of offense for us, obviously. But I thought Z brought it (Friday). … We got him going more in that second quarter, third quarter. We’ve just got to get him going a little bit earlier. I’ll look for him to get off to a good start on Sunday.”
Whenever Williamson is in the thick of the action, New Orleans looks like a far more dangerous outfit.
“It turns our team,” Borrego said. “It creates so many advantages for us. When he’s downhill, and they’re bringing two or three people to the ball, it generates a lot of open threes for us, and open paint opportunities.”
Borrego knows that finishing the season strongly will come down to more than just firing Williamson up, noting areas to improve on what he saw in Toronto and the day before against the Detroit Pistons.
“We couldn’t get enough stops to get out in transition,” he said. “The last two games, the ball’s sticking too much. … We’ve got to get back home, back to a playing style we’ve been moving towards. The ball’s got to move — bottom line. We’ve got to get stops; we’ve got to become more physical.”
Houston (44-29) ended a two-game skid with a 119-109 win over the host Memphis Grizzlies.
The Rockets saw their 11-point lead scaled right back to three in the fourth period before closing strongly.
“I thought the effort was there from the start,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “It felt more energized out there.”
Kevin Durant may have recently overtaken Michael Jordan in fifth position on the all-time scoring list, but it was his crisp passing that stood out in Memphis.
Durant finished with 25 points and 10 assists. Two nights earlier, against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he had 30 points and eight assists.
“The more I sacrifice my shots for my teammates, the better I am, and the better we are as a team,” he said. “I try to pick and choose my spots. I know I can shoot every time I touch the ball, but I try to play in the flow of the game and try to involve my teammates as much as I can, and they do the same for me.”
