Pelicans’ Zion Williamson checks out early after injuring finger

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson did not play the final 7:24 of Wednesday night’s 117-108 loss to the Orlando Magic because of a finger injury on his left hand.

Williamson had the middle finger of his left shooting hand taped up as he took questions from reporters following the game, but didn’t want to speculate on the extent of the injury.

“I don’t want to say anything that’s not right, to be honest,” Williamson said. “But yeah, I tweaked it a little bit. I’ll have more information on it [Thursday] morning and I’m going to get it looked at and go from there.”

Williamson said he “got hit a few times” on the finger, but the initial injury might have happened with 2:25 left in the second quarter, when he hit his hand on the side of the backboard on a block at the rim on Jalen Suggs‘ layup attempt. Still, he played through the injury into the second half.

There was also a play early in the third quarter when Williamson’s legs were cut out from under him by Gary Harris, who slipped and fell while attempting to poke the ball away from Williamson. Officials ruled the play a slip and assessed a common foul.

Williamson played until the 6:49 mark of the third quarter, when he picked up his fourth foul and went to the locker room with a trainer. He subbed back in with 2:54 left in the period and played all but 6.7 seconds until checking out for good at the 7:24 mark of the fourth quarter with the Pelicans down 17 and shooting free throws.

Despite New Orleans cutting the lead to single digits in the final three minutes, Williamson did not return.

“He had something going on with his finger,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “I’m not sure what it is at the moment, but we’ll have an update for you guys soon.”

Williamson finished with 15 points on 7-of-16 shooting in 29 minutes.

The team is also dealing with injuries to Brandon Ingram (left knee bone contusion) and Jose Alvarado (right oblique strain). Ingram missed his seventh consecutive game Wednesday, Alvarado his fourth in a row.

Wednesday’s defeat was the Pelicans’ fourth in their past five games, all at home. The loss dropped them to a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference.

The game’s final 7.4 seconds saw Pelicans players Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III and Dyson Daniels all ejected for something they said to the officials.

“We have to keep our composure,” Green said. “Look, I get it, some calls aren’t going our way. We feel like other teams are getting those calls and our guys are frustrated about it, rightfully so. I’m OK with battling and there’s some times where guys get a tech here and there, but at the end of the game, we have to keep our composure. Game’s over pretty much. And we got to take it. We lost. We got to be able to take that sometimes.”

The game had a playoff-like atmosphere at times and playoff-like fouls. Harris’ foul on Williamson caused both teams to…