Zion Williamson‘s hamstring injury turned out to become a big blow for the New Orleans Pelicans, but that did not stop them from putting on a show in the last game of the play-in tournament. Williamson suffered an injury late in the fourth quarter of the 7th-seed game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The 23-year-old forward’s absence increased the chances of the Pelicans making a blunder in a do-or-die game. However, it was Shaquille O’Neal, who made the biggest blunder with a prediction ahead of Kings vs Pelicans. 

Shaq has always been confident with his takes. Ahead of the Sacramento Kings vs the Pelicans battle for the 8th seed, the 4x champion shared on Inside the NBA, “Sacramento is about to say, ‘You guys ain’t got Zion. We know y’all beat us like that one time before, but y’all ain’t got Zion, y’all are cooked‘. So I’m going with Sacramento tonight, by double digits.“

Contrastingly, the Kings trailed by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter today. Moreover, they are officially out of the playoff race, with a 7-point loss to the Williamson-less Pelicans. De’Aaron Fox rose up in the fourth quarter to finish the game with 35 points, but all of it went in vain. Brandon Ingram was the star of the ship for NOLA with 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. He not only took the Pelicans to the playoffs but also proved Shaquille O’Neal wrong! 

Also, it looks like Pelicans took Shaq’s words personally! 

Pelicans’ X handle gets their revenge on Shaquille O’Neal 

Shaq’s bold claim raised eyebrows on the internet. It wasn’t just him, but Barkley was also rooting for the Sacramento Kings. Williamson’s absence pushed the above two legends to make a confident prediction. However, after Ingram put all the doubts to sleep, the Pelicans shared a hilarious template on X to get back at Shaq. They also added in the captions, “BBQ Chicken“, mocking the Sacramento Kings. 

However, Shaq was not the only one to catch strays from the Pelicans. Golden State Warriors center Draymond Green was called out as well. He shared on his podcast yesterday, “Without Zion, I think the Kings should win that pretty easily.“ Another hilarious template of Green was tweeted, which is going viral on X.

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Looks like Williamson’s absence helped the Pelicans to show what they are capable of. However, playoffs are not going to be an easy ride for them, as their first test is against the best in the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Barkley still believes that the OKC can sweep the Pelicans. Let’s see if Ingram can prove the naysayers wrong once again.