Pelicans win NBA draft lottery, right to pick No. 1

CHICAGO — Zion Williamson has never been to New Orleans.

That may be changing very soon.

The Pelicans bucked seriously long odds Tuesday night, winning the NBA draft lottery and the right to have the first chance at selecting the former Duke star next month — and potentially pairing him with Anthony Davis, in what would immediately become one of the league’s most intriguing frontcourt duos.

“I don’t believe the universe makes mistakes,” said David Griffin, who is barely a month into his tenure as New Orleans’ executive vice president of basketball operations. “I just think we have something special going on.”

Griffin doesn’t play the lottery, unless the jackpot is one of those billion-dollar-type enormous ones.

Maybe he should. The ping-pong balls seem to bounce his way a lot.

Griffin was with Cleveland when the Cavaliers won the lottery in 2011, 2013 and 2014. And now it’s the Pelicans, his new employer, which has struck lottery gold. They defied the odds to do it; the Pelicans entered the lottery with a 6% chance of winning the No. 1 pick for the June 20 draft.

So now, instead of going into a summer where they may have traded Davis — the player New Orleans got when it won the lottery in 2012, the player who was openly disgruntled this season — the Pelicans have a chance at becoming much better, and fast.

“This just jump-starts the process,” Griffin said. “It’ll be harder for me to mess it up than it would have been before this.”

makes it special, I’m from here,” Lillard said. “I could walk home from here if I wanted to, that tells you how close it is.”

McCollum had 17 and missed five of his six 3s as the cold-shooting Blazers went just 7 for 28 from long range.

Game 2 is Thursday night, and the Warriors are unlikely to have Durant back from a strained right calf. An update on Durant’s status is expected that day once the two-time reigning NBA Finals MVP is re-examined.

“I think we played a terrible game and we still had a chance going into the fourth quarter,” McCollum said, “so we need to tighten some things up and look forward to the game on Thursday.”

Curry came off screens with authority and matched his postseason career high for 3s, also accomplished in Game 1 of last year’s finals against Cleveland. He found his groove far earlier than in the Game 6 clincher at Houston on Friday night, when he scored all 33 of his points in the second half.

Little brother Seth struggled with three points for Portland, which shot 36.1% overall.