Zion Williamson may be sitting atop the NBA steals leaderboard, but he’s not about to turn that into a victory lap.
He didn’t even realize he was leading the league until teammates pointed it out to him.
“It’s cool, but it’s still early in the season,” Williamson. “Ask me again around Game 20.
Let’s see where I’m at then. If I’m still top five, then we’re doing good.”
Through six games, he’s at the top, averaging a league-best 3.2 steals per game. He’s had at least three steals in all but one outing, and last week against Denver he piled up five, just one off his career high.
Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley said Williamson’s impact has come from discipline, not freelancing.
“What’s most impressive about Zion is how he’s sitting down and guarding,” said Pelicans’ coach Jamahl Mosley. “He’s leading the league in steals and he’s doing it from being positional.
He’s not gambling or chasing, but just being in the right position at the right time. His aggression defensively is making the offensive side of the ball easier.
He’s willing to do whatever is necessary to help this team win.”
Williamson isn’t the only Pelican making noise in the steals column. New Orleans is leading the league there too, averaging 13.7 steals per game after Saturday’s win over Atlanta.
The Pelicans forced 15 turnovers in that 121-99 victory, with Saddiq Bey collecting four steals and Williamson adding three. That led to 34 points off turnovers, coming just two nights after the team set a franchise record with 40 points off turnovers in a win over Sacramento.
That defensive surge has pushed New Orleans to fourth in the league in defensive rating at 104.0, behind only the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors after Saturday’s game.
The Pelicans have now won two straight after opening the season with four losses, and the turnaround has come since Herb Jones was moved into the starting lineup. Next up is a Monday night trip to Memphis, where New Orleans will try for a third straight win against the Grizzlies, the NBA’s only unbeaten team at 6-0.
Mosley, hired for his defensive acumen, said Saturday’s performance was closer to the standard he wants his team to reach.
“There is a lot of it there,” Mosley said. “I think us being able to crawl into the basketball, protect the paint the right way.
The effort and the energy that our guys played with. That toughness that we’ve asked them to play with.
That was closer to the 48 (minutes) of what it needs to look like.”
Atlanta had won four straight against New Orleans, and each of those victories came by double digits. But the Pelicans changed that script in CJ McCollum’s first game back in New Orleans, holding the Hawks to 38.5 % shooting overall and just 17.4 % from 3-point range.
“We’ve been trying to build expectations since the summertime,” Bey said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can defend.
We just had to get the cohesiveness together. We have to keep looking after each other and helping one another on that end of the floor and do it for 48 minutes.
We’ve still got some ways to go, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
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Jeremiah Fears also gave the Pelicans a lift with one of the most productive games of his young run, adding playmaking and rim protection in a way that helped steady the group. New Orleans has now won back-to-back games, and Murray was around for the second one even if he did not take the floor, leaving the Pelicans with a rotation that is still being sorted out but has already found a few useful answers. [Read more 🡒]