D'Angelo Russell on Zion Williamson: He's playing football, we're playing basketball'
Zion Williamson attempted a season-high 19 free throws and scored a career-high 43 points to lead the Pelicans over the Timberwolves 119-118 Wednesday night.
Williamson played bully ball, using his explosiveness, size and power to get to the rim at will. He scored 33 of his 43 points in the second half, including the Pelicans' last 14 points to hold off the competitive Timberwolves. But not everyone was impressed by Williamson's dominance.
"He's playing football, we're playing basketball. We can't touch him or guard him. So, good for him," said D'Angelo Russell after the game.
"He's playing football, we're playing basketball. We can't touch him or guard him. So, good for him."
— Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) December 29, 2022
-D'Angelo Russell on Zion Williamson's career-high 43 points.
"He was their entire effort tonight. He was outstanding," said Minnesota head coach Chris Finch.
"I thought our first half defense on him was outstanding. our second half was way too soft. We let him come running at us and he was able to get a head of steam and when he does that it's tough, and then he lived at the free-throw line."
Williamson's 19 attempts from the charity stripe is tied for the seventh most in a game this season. Jerami Grant attempted 28 free throws in an overtime game between the Blazers and Knicks on Nov. 25. Joel Embiid had 24 attempts on Nov. 13 and Luka Doncic shot 22 free throws in his 60-point triple-double on Tuesday.
Minnesota's next challenge is Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks on Friday. Giannis leads the NBA with 12.7 free-throw attempts per game and has attempted 20+ free throws twice this season, one of them in Milwaukee's 115-102 win over the Timberwolves on Nov. 4.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.