Just as Zion Williamson and the Pelicans flexed their status as apparent contenders in the West by owning the best record in the conference in mid-December, things went a bit left.
Right as they got a positive writeup in Sports Illustrated—maybe the SI curse is alive?—New Orleans promptly lost four consecutive games, the club’s longest skid of the campaign thus far. But making matters far worse: Yesterday the team announced that Williamson, who’d largely been healthy in drumming up low-level MVP chatter this year after missing all of last season, will be sidelined for at least the next three weeks of action due to a hamstring strain.