Pelicans-Hawks: Zion sits in home loss in New Orleans | Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans had five inactive players on Sunday. If they were all healthy, they would have formed an impressive starting XI.

Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy and Zion Williamson.

Nobody could play against the Atlanta Hawks.

Williamson was the only surprise in this group. He showed up at the Smoothie King Center two hours before game time with right hamstring strain.

The Pelicans couldn't overcome all of these injuries. They lost to the Hawks 126-111 – their first home loss of the season.

New Orleans fell to 3-4 overall. The Pelicans are in for a quick turnaround. On Monday night they play the Portland Trail Blazers for the third time this season.

In June, the Pelicans and Hawks made one of the biggest trades of the summer. The Pelicans acquired Murray in exchange for Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels and two first-round picks. Murray broke his left hand in the first game of the season in New Orleans. Nance and Daniels were active for Atlanta and both played well against their former team.

With a little less than three minutes left in the third quarter, Nance dove in and scored three straight corner kicks. He celebrated by blowing a kiss to the Pelicans bench.

Atlanta took an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter and maintained it.

The Hawks survived an excellent performance from Brandon Ingram. The Pelicans forward scored a game-high 32 points on 12 of 19 shots.

Ingram threw four three-pointers. For years, Pelicans coach Willie Green has been trying to get him to increase his 3-point production. Ingram finally answers.

At the 8:12 mark of the fourth quarter, Ingram made a pull-up jumper from 11 feet away, cutting Atlanta's lead to five points. That was as close as New Orleans got in the fourth game.

The severely undermanned Pelicans faltered in the final quarter with turnover problems. Giveaways on three consecutive possessions allowed Atlanta to extend its lead to 16 points at the 5:46 mark of the fourth period.

Hawks guard Trae Young scored 23 points and dished out 12 assists. Daniels contributed 16 points. Forward Jalen Johnson scored 29 points.

Jordan Hawkins made his third start of the season for New Orleans. He struggled, shooting 7-of-18.

The Pelicans used two of their two-way players – Brandon Boston Jr. and Jamal Cain – in their rotation. That was a clear sign of how injury-poor they are.