San Antonio Spurs 121-117 New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans have waited too long for Zion Williamson, the basketball marvel they selected with the first pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. After sitting out the first 44 games of the regular season due to injury, the 19-year-old star forward from Duke finally made his debut on Wednesday at the Smoothie King Center. More importantly, his performance was quite impressive.

The Pelicans obviously were very protective of Williamson. Though he started in every quarter, he understandably only received four minutes in the first three quarters considering that he just came back from knee surgery. Williamson himself did not show much appetite for individual attack – he held the ball five times in the first quarter, passed it away four times, including assisting Brandon Ingram to finish a dunk. On his fifth possession, Williamson drove toward the rim from the free throw line but missed the shot.

Williamson got his first point in the second quarter as he grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back into the basket. Though it's only a two-point field goal, 1.98-meter-tall, 129-kilogram Williamson was able to take the over 2.06-meter Trey Lyles and 2.13-meter Jakob Poeltl, showing remarkable explosiveness.

The 19-year-old made another two attempts in the third quarter. He first dribbled the ball along the baseline, tried to break through the defense of LaMarcus Aldridge and was fouled when he shot. He made one free throw. Then he received a sudden pass from a teammate and made a layup to get another two points before sitting back onto the bench.

In Williamson's first 12 minutes on the court, he had multiple chances to post up but chose to pass the ball away; he had good court vision, but he and the rest of the team lacked familiarity; he seemed very confused about his defensive role, but to be fair, almost all the Pelicans were confused in this area.

Simply speaking, Williamson played just like a rookie in his first game – he did not want to look selfish, which made him nervous; he wanted to help the team but did not know what to do. This was expected but also a bit disappointing.

Fortunately, Williamson somehow was enlightened in the last quarter. It had been known to all that he does not pose much threat from the 3-point line and thus the Spurs chose to leave him open when he had the ball there.

Then Williamson buried a 3-pointer from downtown, the first of four in a row. Moreover, he also finished an alley-oop and a put-back shot. In the end, Williamson put an end to his continuous scoring performance by earning another two free throws on Aldridge via penetration.

In three minutes and 29 seconds, Williamson dropped 17 points. In his first game, he became the first rookie in NBA history to score 20+points (22) in less than 20 minute (18); he's the first rookie to go 4-4 from the 3-point line in his debut; his 17 points in the fourth quarter matched the best record by any rookie in the past 20 years; he surpassed Anthony Davis to score the highest points in his first game in the history of the Pelicans.

Fans didn't seem bothered that he committed five turnovers and his team lost the game. When he was standing at the free throw line in the last quarter, fans at the Smoothie King Center began to chant "MVP," half for his impressiveness, and the other half for the infinite possibilities in him.

"It was very hard. I'm 19. In that moment, I'm not thinking about longevity. I'm thinking about winning the game. It was very hard (to get pulled)," Williamson said after the game, regarding his time restriction.

Los Angeles Clippers 95-102 Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks achieved a great comeback win at the State Farm Arena over the Clippers as they overcame a 19-point lead in the game. The Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley sat during this game,  while Trae Young was ruled out for the Hawks. 

The Clippers put Lou Williams in the starting lineup, but he continued to freeze from the 3-point line, where he missed all seven shots. Montrezl Harrell was able to have his way on offense as he put down 30 points and seven rebounds, but he couldn't keep the Clippers on the winning side.

John Collins filled Young's shoes to lead the Hawks. He scored 33 points, 16 rebounds and three steals to help the team take the comeback victory.

The other good news for Atlanta fans in Wednesday's game was that 42-year-old Vince Carter got three points, surpassing Alex English (25,613) to rank 19th (25,616) on the NBA career scoring leaders table. The 18th-ranked player is Carmelo Anthony (26,037).

Other games on Wednesday (Home teams in bold):

Sacramento Kings 106-127 Detroit Pistons

Oklahoma City Thunder 120-114 Orlando Magic

Philadelphia 76ers 95-107 Toronto Raptors

Memphis Grizzlies 95-119 Boston Celtics

Washington Wizards 129-134 Miami Heat

Los Angeles Lakers 100-92 New York Knicks

Minnesota Timberwolves 110-117 Chicago Bulls

Indiana Pacers 112-87 Phoenix Suns

Utah Jazz 129-96 Golden State Warriors

Denver Nuggets 105-121 Houston Rockets