Williamson struggles with setback from hamstring injury

METAIRIE, La. – New Orleans Pelicans All-Star Zion Williamson has aggravated his previously injured right hamstring, extending the timeline for his return to “multiple weeks past AllStar break,” basketball operations chief David Griffin said Sunday.

Griffin said Williamson, who has been averaging 26 points per game this season, had progressed to the point where he was able to participate in 3on-3 drills in practice and was on the court when he experienced his setback.

When asked how Williamson handled the setback emotionally, Griffin said, “it’s fair to say not terribly well because he was really diligent in his rehab.”

“Unfortunately this is an injury that has a very high incidence of recurrence,” Griffin said. “It’s nothing he did wrong to bring this about. … It’s an injury that’s tricky and hard to navigate. I think you’ve seen other players around the league have those same re-incidences. It’s not unique.”

Williamson has missed 20 straight games since his initial hamstring injury on Jan. 2. If he misses the first two weeks after the All-Star break, he will have been out at least 27 games.

Without Williamson, the Pelicans have gone 12-16, but a number of those games were played while high-scoring wing Brandon Ingram also was out.

Ingram is now back in the lineup and has scored 25 or more points in each of his past four games.

The Pelicans enter Monday night’s game at Oklahoma City having won three of four, with the lone loss in that stretch coming against surging Cleveland, which is on a six-game winning streak.

The silver lining for the Pelicans is that they have virtually the same core players available now that they had during their playoff run last spring, when Williamson was recovering from a foot injury that sidelined him for all of last season.

The Pelicans also made a move at last week’s NBA trade deadline that sent 6foot-1 reserve guard Devonte’ Graham to San Antonio for veteran 6-5 guard Josh Richardson, who is in his eighth season and is expected to help New Orleans defensively.