Welcome to “That One Play!” Throughout the 2022-23 NBA season, our TSN staff will break down certain possessions from certain games and peel back the curtains to reveal their bigger meaning.
Today, Pelican star Zion Williamson takes the spotlight.
It looked like the Timberwolves were going to snap their losing streak. Then, Zion happened.
After limiting him to 10 points in the first half, Williamson went off for 33 points in the second half of Minnesota’s loss to New Orleans on Wednesday. He was at his best down the final stretch, scoring the last 14 points of the game for the Pelicans to complete the comeback.
Of the 14 field goals Williamson made on the night, there was one in particular that stood out.
You know what that means — to the film room!
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The play: Williamson drives to the basket for point No. 38.
Breakdown: Williamson brings the ball up with 1:33 remaining in the fourth quarter of a two-point game.
Sharing the court with Williamson are CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Naji Marshall and Jonas Valanciunas. Murphy and Marshall spot up in opposite corners to give Williamson, McCollum and Valanciunas the space they need to run a Spain pick-and-roll.
Unfamiliar with a Spain pick-and-roll? Think of a regular pick-and-roll, only with a third screener involved.
On this play, Valanciunas sets a screen for Williamson beyond the 3-point line while McCollum sets a screen for Valanciunas in the paint.
The screen from Valanciunas gives Williamson the separation he needs from Anthony Edwards to get downhill. Knowing he wants to get all the way to the basket — Williamson currently leads the league with nearly 20 points per game in the paint — Rudy Gobert wisely hangs back.
It’s hard to believe Williamson gets a layup out of this, right?
Well, Gobert probably wasn’t expecting Williamson to take off from the freaking free-throw line.
Somehow, Williamson turns this:
Into a lightly contested layup:
It’s one of those plays that you have to slow down to truly appreciate.
Why it matters: Look at Williamson’s shot chart from his 43-point game, and you’d think he just scored a bunch of layups and dunks. I mean, he did minus one 3-pointer and one floater, but there’s a lot more nuance to Williamson’s game.
Put it this way: Williamson is an undersized power forward who isn’t a threat to score outside of the paint and heavily favors his left hand, and yet there’s little to nothing anyone can to do prevent him from getting where he wants. That includes Gobert, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year who is one of the best rim protectors the NBA has ever seen.
Gobert might have been more aggressive if he wasn’t in foul trouble for most of the night — Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch also said after the game that he wants to see him challenge more shots — but there were a number of times when Williamson seemed to catch him off guard.
This dunk made all of the highlight reels for obvious reasons:
But Williamson displayed his soft touch with finishes like this:
His strength with powerful drives like this:
His tight handle and quickness with shifty moves like this:
And, of course, the athleticism that allows him to take off from the free-throw line and still get to the rim.
A frustrated D’Angelo Russell compared Williamson to a football player after the game, but McCollum painted a better picture of what makes him such a unique player.
“Like I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that,” McCollum said of Williamson. “I don’t know if we will see somebody with that strength, that power, that speed with the ability to still jump east and west and straight up. He can jump east and west and finish, which is tough and makes it hard for defenses to guard him.”
Williamson is still just scratching the surface of his potential, too. As he continues to add to his game, it’s not hard to imagine him being a top-five player in the NBA sooner rather than later.
