If the New Orleans Pelicans are to make a run through the postseason, they’ll be doing it without Zion Williams.

Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin told reporters Friday that Williamson isn’t ready to return from the hamstring injury that has sidelined him since Jan. 2. So should the Pelicans wind up in the play-in tournament, which begins Tuesday, the 22-year-old All-Star won’t play, Griffin said.

New Orleans still has a chance to avoid the tournament and finish with the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, but they will need wins on Friday against the New York Knicks and on Sunday at the Minnesota Timberwolves – plus some help – to do that.

“It’s disappointing for everybody, disappointing for him, disappointing for his teammates,” Griffin said of Williamson’s prolonged absence. “I think it’s just a matter of all of the objective metrics we have on where he’s at and how he feels … lining up. If they had, we’d have said he’s cleared for five-on-five. They haven’t converged for us to do that.”

Even if the Pelicans advance to the playoffs, there are no guarantees Williamson will play.

“Our best possible outcome – if everything lined up perfectly – maybe you’re in position to practice either prior to a first-round (series) or during a first-round (series). But it’s going to take more than one (practice to prepare for games). And again, we may never get to that point either, where all of those things align and he feels the way he needs to feel.”

Griffin said Williamson hasn’t had a setback with the injury or reported any soreness. He just has a “hesitancy” about him.

“You can see when someone is trusting it and confident. (Williamson is) not in that space right now,” Griffin said.

The No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Williamson has averages of 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 29 starts this season. He is shooting 60.8 percent from the floor.

Williamson missed all of last season after having surgery on a broken foot. He had missed eight games in 2022-23, including three in December while in health and safety protocol, before the hamstring injury.

In four seasons, Williamson has played in just 114 games (all starts). He averages 25.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

–Field Level Media

The Dallas Mavericks will play a must-win game on Friday night against the Chicago Bulls without five players, including All-Star guard Kyrie Irving.

A loss would eliminate the Mavericks (38-42) from the play-in tournament.

Joining Irving (right foot) as unavailable on Friday are Tim Hardaway Jr. (left ankle), Josh Green (rest), Maxi Kleber (right hamstring) and Christian Wood (rest). Star guard Luka Doncic (left thigh) is listed as probable.

To qualify for the play-in, Dallas will need to beat the Bulls as well as the San Antonio Spurs at home on Sunday, combined with an Oklahoma City Thunder loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.

The Mavericks stand to gain by losing, however. The Mavericks are tied with the Bulls for the 10th-best odds in the upcoming NBA draft lottery, and they owe the New York Knicks a first-round draft pick to complete the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis deal. The pick is top-10 protected, however.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, however, said his team is not tanking to preserve the pick, per ESPN

“The guys don’t wanna do that,” Cuban said. “Players aren’t gonna do that. Players don’t do that.”

–Field Level Media

The Minnesota Timberwolves have gained the edge they need to reach the postseason but still have a lot on the line Saturday afternoon when they face the San Antonio Spurs at Austin, Texas.

The Timberwolves (40-40) have two games remaining in the regular season and are in ninth place in the Western Conference, putting them in line for the play-in tournament.

Even if they lose their last two games, the Timberwolves would not drop below the ninth seed, but they still have a chance to rise in the seedings, if they win and other results fall their way.

Minnesota has been off since Tuesday, when they earned a key 107-102 road win over the Brooklyn Nets. After Saturday’s game, the Timberwolves will fly home for a Sunday afternoon season-ending game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Against Brooklyn, Anthony Edwards scored a team-high 23 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 including a pair of late-game free throws that broke a tie and the Timberwolves snapped a three-game losing streak.

“Right now every win feels like two, and every loss feels like three. It’s just crazy,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said after a game in which the teams were never separated by more than four points until the final seconds.

“We desperately needed this game.”

Towns also had 14 rebounds, and bounced back from a game against Portland in which he took just three shots and the Timberwolves lost.

“This looked more like KAT,” Finch said. “We came into (the Brooklyn) game with the mindset to not only get him on track, but also take advantage of what we knew was going to be a (good) matchup because they play a lot of small lineups.”

The Spurs return to their home away from home for the second of a two-game set in Austin after playing well down the stretch Thursday in a 129-127 win over Portland. Keita Bates-Diop racked up 25 points, with 10 of them in the decisive late-game stretch, to push San Antonio to the win.

It was the second win for the Spurs in three games as they remained one game ahead of the last-place Houston Rockets.

Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie added 24 points each for the Spurs (21-59), with Zach Collins contributing 21 points and 11 rebounds and Tre Jones adding 18 points and 10 assists.

Thursday’s game was the first NBA contest played at Moody Center in Austin, which is the home of the team’s G-League franchise.

“It was great. It was almost like a flashback for me (from the G League),” Johnson said. “It was a great atmosphere, it was loud, it was great energy. We looked forward to it as a team. The Spurs family shows up wherever we are at.”

The Spurs trailed by nine before a 13-0 run keyed by Bates-Diop’s back-to-back 3-pointers turned around the game. The surge got the sold-out crowd of 16,023 — an arena record — into a frenzy for a team that typically plays 80 miles away.

“It would have been sort of embarrassing if they didn’t,” Popovich later joked about the loyalty of the Austin crowd. “They are in Texas.”

The Spurs held on thanks to a season-high 33 second-chance points, made possible by 18 offensive rebounds.

San Antonio has taken two of the three games with the Timberwolves this season, but all three of those games were back in October.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Lakers would like to avoid the Western Conference play-in tournament, but LeBron James isn’t stressing over how things work out.

Los Angeles is tied for the seventh-best record in the West with two games remaining and can’t afford another setback when it hosts the red-hot Phoenix Suns on Friday night.

The Lakers have won seven of their past nine games, but they took a damaging 125-118 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. The Lakers (41-39) and the New Orleans Pelicans (41-39) are each one game behind the Clippers (42-38) and the Golden State Warriors (42-38) in the battle for the final two automatic playoff berths in the West.

The 11th consecutive loss to the Clippers was a painful one for the Lakers, who now take on a Phoenix squad that has won a season-high seven straight games.

“Listen, it is what it is,” James said after the Wednesday loss. “Wherever we end up, that’s where we end up. It’s been like four or five seasons in one for us. We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘This is what we need to do. This is where we’re gonna be.’ ”

The Suns (45-35) are locked into the No. 4 spot in the West and are resting four starters — Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton — on Friday in the second game of a back-to-back set. Phoenix defeated the visiting Denver Nuggets 119-115 on Thursday night.

Durant scored 29 points against the Nuggets and Paul added 25. Paul made a career-best seven 3-pointers and Durant sank six treys.

Paul has scored 22 and 25 points in his past two games after failing to reach 20 in his previous 27 outings.

Durant feels Paul will have more high-scoring games in the postseason as he believes teams will make it a priority to stop himself and Booker.

“I think a lot of teams are going to force (Paul) to be a scorer,” Durant said after the Suns improved to 8-0 with him in the lineup. “The best defenders are going to guard me and Book every night. He’s going to have opportunities to be aggressive and score. I think every game might be different for CP. He might lead us in assists, he might lead us in points. We just need him to be aggressive.”

Paul had just two assists against Denver and didn’t get his first until the final eight minutes of the contest.

“At one point, I had no assists for the game, that was weird,” Paul said. “That’s never been my story. But on this run that we’re trying to have, it’s whatever it takes. I don’t care what it looks like.”

Meanwhile, James has averaged 35 points over the past two games but is listed as questionable for Friday due to right foot soreness. James recently returned from an injury to that same foot.

James scored 30 of his 33 points in the second half during the loss to the Clippers.

Anthony Davis (right foot) also is questionable to face the Suns while D’Angelo Russell (left foot) is probable.

Russell recorded 15 points and seven assists in 40 minutes against the Clippers after missing the Lakers’ 135-133 overtime win against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

“Just trying to get right,” Russell said. “Playing at 50 percent isn’t helping the team. Whenever I’m more than that, I’m ready to play.”

Phoenix is 2-1 against the Lakers this season, but Los Angeles posted a 122-111 home victory on March 22 to end a six-game skid against the Suns.

–Field Level Media