NBA Bubble Update: Zion Williamson leaves Disney World for urgent family matter, James Harden to feature in his first practice today
Big news coming in from the NBA Bubble! The New Orleans Pelicans have been dealt a huge blow in their preparations for the NBA season restart as forward Zion Williamson has left Disney World to attend to 'urgent family matters'.
Zion Williamson has been a revelation in his debut NBA season. He has made waves for the Rookie of the Year race despite playing only 18 games due to injuries. Zion Williamson averages of 23.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in only 29.7 minutes per game mark him out as a special talent.
Zion Williamson's road back into the NBA Bubble
The teams in the NBA bubble start their scrimmage games on the 22nd of July. Supposing that Zion is back in 3 days from today, he'd have to quarantine himself for an additional 10 days. He'll also have missed all the warm-up games. This means that he will be cutting it extremely fine in turning out for the franchise for the game against the Utah Jazz on the day of the NBA restart.
The Pelicans would be hoping for Zion Williamson's presence to come up big in their fight for an NBA playoff berth. The NBA has ruled that a play-in tournament will be played if the 8th seed of a Conference is within 4 games of the 9th-placed team, and the Pelicans have as good a chance as anyone of making that happen.
But without Zion Williamson, even they would be a bit skeptical about their chances of making this first-of-its-kind play-in tournament happen.
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NBA Bubble Update: James Harden to practice today
After arriving in the NBA bubble yesterday, the NBA's top scorer James Harden is rearing to get a go and will be practicing today in all probability.
James Harden has been the fulcrum of the Houston Rockets' NBA championship aspirations for the last 8 seasons. The 8-time All Star has been an ever-present in the NBA's MVP conversation for 6 straight seasons, and already has 2 scoring titles to his name.
James Harden is right on track for his 3rd straight NBA scoring title, leading the next-best competitor Bradley Beal by a margin of 3.9 points per game. Beal will take no further part in the games to come on account of a shoulder injury.
The Houston Rockets will also be looking to have James Harden's partner Russell Westbrook back in their ranks as soon as possible. Westbrook was diagnosed to be coronavirus positive in the NBA's in-franchise round of testing and has been quarantining himself at home.
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