Anthony Davis will not be heading back to the court until he is 100 percent healthy, Pelicans coach Monty Williams told ESPN.
"I talked to him [Thursday] and I said, 'If you don't look close to yourself, I'm not going to let you play,'" Williams said after the Pelicans defeated the Clippers 108-103 Friday night. "And he said, 'No, Coach, I'm good,' and I said, 'Dude, look, it's not going to happen.' It's not what we need. I would never put anybody out there that's not close to themselves. It doesn't help them, and it doesn't say a lot about our program."
Davis suffered a groin injury after slamming into Kenneth Faried of the Nuggets on Wednesday. Williams said the injury was further aggravated during pregame workouts on Friday.
At this point, Williams hasn't set a date to when the team's leading scorer will return.
"It's all about his comfort level and what we see," he said. "If it was just his comfort level, he would play, but we don't see him with the same burst and explosion, certainly moving off of that leg where the injury happened. We don't see the same A.D. That's where you have to pull the plug on him so he can stop trying to play and rest and get the rehab that he needs so he can play in the next game if possible."
The Pelicans' next game is against the Hawks on Monday.