Zion has the ability to hold the ball, and his dribbling skills are relatively outstanding among interior players, but because he has no shooting ability and relies too much on the strong attack under the basket, we have the impression that Zion can't play key balls. In the case of Zion, we generally call it small-range ball-handling ability, which means that his ball-handling offense can only finish under the basket, and cannot directly dry up from mid-to-long distance like Durant, Leonard, and Ingram.
But playing against the Kings today, Zion showed his ability to make key shots, even if he could only attack the basket, Zion still played extremely efficiently. With the Pelicans on the floor with Varan and Zion on at the same time, the Kings' final lineup was Barnes to defend Zion. Barnes single-handedly defended a few Zion, directly ignoring the defense, holding the ball from the outside is to kill the basket, and Xiao Sa's basket was directly ignored in Zion's eyes. Some of them are scored directly, and some of them are not put in after the confrontation, but they grab the front court board and the second attack is scoring. In short, Barnes leads the defense, and the defensive strategy of Xiao Sa protecting the basket can't prevent Zion at all. Later, the Kings began to pinch Zion's ball on the line, Zion's ability to read the game has also improved, and his ability to find teammates when the ball is not bad. Murphy's pivotal three-pointer came from a chance after Zion was caught up and hit the ball in time.
A core like Zion plays key shots, and when he knows that he doesn't have a basket, he has only one result of holding the ball in the high post, which is to hit the basket. For how to prevent this situation, the whole team must be prepared to shrink and completely rely on the inside line to protect the basket, Zion may not be afraid. But the Pelicans have pitchers like CJ, Murphy, and Jones on the outside, and the Pelicans' wings and baseline are really not easy to shrink. Maybe Zion's key shots in the playoffs will still be limited and will be difficult to play, but he may invisibly change the opponent's defensive strategy and let his teammates have a stage to play.