{"id":164630,"date":"2025-10-29T01:22:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=164630"},"modified":"2025-10-29T01:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T05:22:52","slug":"pelicans-zion-williamson-explains-surprise-day-to-day-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/29\/pelicans-zion-williamson-explains-surprise-day-to-day-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans&#8217; Zion Williamson Explains Surprise &#8216;Day-To-Day&#8217; Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, the New Orleans Pelicans will try to get their first win of the 2025-26 season, traveling into hostile territory to face the Denver Nuggets. As the Nuggets are led by a three-time NBA MVP, Nikola Jokic, it would seem like the odds are stacked against them. The fact that there&#8217;s a real chance they&#8217;ll have to take them on without <em>their<\/em> best player, one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willizi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zion Williamson<\/a>, only adds to their anxiety.<\/p>\n<h2>The Basketball Gods Struck Pelicans With Zion Williamson Injury<\/h2>\n<p>Though the Pelicans would lose in overtime, Williamson had a sensational showing against the San Antonio Spurs last Friday. In the end, he would record 27 points, 10 rebounds (five offensive), seven assists and three steals in 37 minutes. It was a flawed performance due to his untimely turnovers and unsightly free-throw percentage (68.8%, 11-16). Nevertheless, the two-time All-Star was able to make a number of game-changing plays as he continues what he hopes to be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/17\/zion-williamsons-contract-pelicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a redemption tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The basketball gods just gave Williamson another challenge though. In the fourth quarter of their loss to the Spurs, Williamson threw down a vicious putback dunk on Defensive Player of the Year favorite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a> in the fourth quarter. A highlight-reel play that galvanized the home crowd, it got Williamson fired up too. So much adrenaline was running through him that he didn&#8217;t even notice what just happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLanded on someone\u2019s foot and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nola.com\/sports\/pelicans\/pelicans-zion-williamson-gives-update-on-foot-injury\/article_4442d689-1ec1-4623-8dd5-92f4f8c5d2dc.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the side of my foot<\/a> just banged the ground,\u201d Williamson says of the play, per NOLA.com&#8217;s Rod Walker. \u201cThe pain level didn\u2019t really pick up until a day or two days later. I spoke with the team, made the best decision on it. Got it looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This is when Zion Williamson injured himself on that putback dunk against the Spurs. You can clearly see him landing on Victor Wembanyama&#8217;s foot <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZeO44NkrfE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ZeO44NkrfE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Quenton Albertie (\u211a) (@qshironalberti3) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/qshironalberti3\/status\/1983389774070366509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now we\u2019re in a day-to-day thing,\u201d Williamson explains. \u201cBut nothing major. Nothing that is going to keep me out for a long time. Just day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Pelicans&#8217; Zion Williamson Explains Surprise &#8216;Day-To-Day&#8217; Injury<\/h3>\n<p>On Monday, Williamson was ruled out of the Pelicans&#8217; matchup against the Boston Celtics due to a bone contusion.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_164637\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-164637\" style=\"width: 1294px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-164637\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1294\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres.jpg 1294w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27433705_168404789_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1294px) 100vw, 1294px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-164637\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oct 27, 2025; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson reacts after a teammate scores against the Boston Celtics during the first half at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prior to the game, Pelicans head coach Willie Green would say &#8220;it&#8217;s just something that kind of popped up&#8221; that morning and that he&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PelsFilmRoom\/status\/1982935128633684058\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">not too sure<\/a>&#8221; if it would be a lingering injury (h\/t Pelicans Film Room). About an hour later, they were being routed by the Celtics. There were multiple reasons for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/bos-vs-nop-0022500117\/box-score#box-score\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the lopsided final score<\/a>, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fearsje01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeremiah Fears<\/a>&#8216;s shot-selection in his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/16\/pelicans-should-start-jeremiah-fears-season-opener\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">first career start<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joneshe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Herb Jones<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/q\/queende01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derik Queen<\/a> combining for more personal fouls (9) than field goals (6) to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murphtr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trey Murphy III<\/a>\u00a0scoring seven points in 33 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>However, the most obvious issue was the absence of Williamson. Since New Orleans drafted him first overall in 2019, he&#8217;s played 30 or fewer games in all but two seasons. As one might expect, this <em>really<\/em> cramps their style. In fact, they&#8217;re 100-159 without the face of their franchise, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask?q=new+orleans+pelicans+record+without+zion+williamson+since+2019-20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a .386 win percentage<\/a> (h\/t StatMuse).<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Williamson is questionable for the Pelicans&#8217; battle against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. As a result, their losing streak could last at least a little longer. If they controlled their own first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, there would be a silver lining to that. Yet, that draft pick is heading to the Atlanta Hawks as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/16\/pelicans-joe-dumars-responds-directly-critics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a result of their trade<\/a> for Queen. The Hawks haven&#8217;t been able to fly right this season either, but at least <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/28\/the-hawks-are-surprisingly-struggling-but-heres-the-silver-lining\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">they have that as consolation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, the New Orleans Pelicans will try to get their first win of the 2025-26 season, traveling into hostile territory to face the Denver Nuggets. As the Nuggets are led by a three-time NBA MVP, Nikola Jokic, it would seem like the odds are stacked against them. The fact that there&#8217;s a real chance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":164639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,4,1608,62,3,34],"tags":[4745,4669,1684],"class_list":["post-164630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-spurs","tag-nba-injuries","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164640,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164630\/revisions\/164640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}