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Zion Williamson has now played two games since the New Orleans Pelicans decided he was ready to start his NBA career. The first was against San Antonio where he started quiet before running off a personal streak of 17 straight points in the fourth quarter.
Against Denver on Friday night Williamson had 15 points, six rebounds and one block.
About that...
At Duke we got used to seeing him do inexplicable, superhuman things and in his short return, we hadn’t yet seen him do that.
Until that block.
Williamson saw former Florida State star Malik Beasley take Duke’s all-time leading scorer JJ Redick down the lane and went to meet him. Redick fell back as Beasley went up
He took off and sent his shot well into the stands.
It was the first time New Orleans had really seen Williamson do a play like that and if you look at the :22 second mark - just behind fellow former Devils Jahlil Okafor and Frank Jackson who appear to be watching the replay on the scoreboard - a kid has his hands on his head while his mouth gapes open.
So far, Williamson is still getting his legs under him but he’s looked better both times out and that block reminded people of what he can do.
More quietly he’s also doing this: Williamson shot 8-11 against the Spurs and 7-9 against the Nuggets. That’s 15-20 which is 75 percent.
And he’s still rusty.