Zion Williamson had his best game of the young season Monday night, helping the New Orleans Pelicans hand the Memphis Grizzlies their first loss of the season, 135-134 in overtime.
Zion was key for the Pelicans down the stretch, scoring nine of his 25 points in overtime. He shot 9 of 15 from the field, made seven of nine free throws, dished out four assists and grabbed 11 rebounds.
25 PTS (9/15 FG) 11 REB 4 AST
Zion’s Lack of Rebounding
Before Monday night, Zion hadn’t recorded more than six rebounds in a game this season. He was averaging just over four rebounds per game through the first six games and even had a game in which he grabbed just one rebound in more than 32 minutes of action. For his career, he’s averaged 6.4 rebounds per game in 283 games.
For someone with his explosiveness and athleticism, his lack of rebounding has always been somewhat of a conundrum. In his career, he’s recorded 11 or more rebounds just 24 times, according to Land of Basketball. Lower the threshold to 10 rebounds, and it’s 44 games. Of the games he’s played, that’s fewer than 10% with at least 11 rebounds and just 15.5% with 10 or more.
He certainly has the ability to do it. At Duke, Zion averaged 8.9 rebounds in 33 games as a freshman phenom in 2018-19 before becoming the No.1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. That season, he won virtually every major individual award in college basketball. He was the Wooden Award winner, Naismith Award winner, Associated Press Player of the Year, USBWA Player of the Year, USBWA Freshman of the Year, NABC Division I Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American.
Of course, one of the biggest knocks on Zion has simply been his lack of availability since entering the league. He’s played 70 or more games just once and 60 or more games only three times. He missed the entire 2021-22 season with a foot injury and has yet to consistently deliver on the hype surrounding him when he came out of Duke.
Zion’s Start to the 2026-27 Season
He’s off to an encouraging start this season, however. Zion has played in all seven of the Pelicans’ games, averaging 21.3 points on 63.6% shooting in 32.2 minutes per game. He’s also among the league’s top five in steals, averaging 2.7 per game.
Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley also seems to be making a concerted effort to put Zion in positions to succeed, as was evident on Monday night.
“Coach kind of put us in a set where I’m on the right side of the court — got [Jeremiah] Fears, Trey [Murphy III], whether they invert. If I come off the screen, I can go straight into pick-and-roll with them, but my teammates was really telling me to go. I have to give a shout out to Saddiq [Bey]. You know, that’s my brother. When it came time to overtime, he was just like, “Nope, four/five pick-and-roll. You go,” Williamson said after the game.
Bey wasn’t the only Pelicans teammate encouraging Zion to be aggressive. According to Pelicans writer Jim Eichenhofer, Fears echoed Bey’s sentiment.
“[Zion Williamson], he gets a lot of credit. He was big down the stretch. He made the right play every time. We put the ball in his hands and we trusted him,” Fears said on Pelicans postgame radio.
The question has never been about Zion’s ability, but rather whether he could consistently sustain it. After a strong start to the season, he appears to be on track for his best season yet.
Pelicans’ Zion Williamson Shows Encouraging Sign in Overtime Win