Zion Williamson called out his team after a second straight embarrassing loss Wednesday night, according to an ESPN story. The Pelicans dropped a 145-111 decision at home to a Brooklyn squad that entered the game with just two wins. That came two days after losing by a franchise-record 51 points to Golden State.

Williamson called the performance “unacceptable” and listed several areas where players need to improve.

“As men we have to, as a unit, players, coaches, everybody, you have to go look yourself in the mirror when you by yourself and say, did I do everything that I needed to do for my team?” Williamson said. “Did I do — was I in the gaps on defense? Was I a low man when I was supposed to? Did I get out there and contest shots to make it tough on them? Did I do everything I needed to do? Did I give in real effort? That’s what everybody has to do.”

Williamson’s career has been plagued by injuries, but he’s been making an effort to improve in that area. He appeared in 62 games last season, even though a slow start kept New Orleans out of serious postseason contention, and he has been available for 11 of the first 12 games this year while averaging 32.7 minutes per night. The top pick in the 2019 draft has never reached the playoffs, and he’s hoping to spark a turnaround after watching his team fall to 4-8.

“I said nobody likes to lose like this, but if we don’t like to lose like this, we have to start with ourselves first,” Williamson added. “Look in the mirror and say, did I do what I needed to do for my team? Not individually. Did I do what I needed to do for my team? And then we go from there.”

There’s more from New Orleans:

• The Pelicans have surrendered 145, 138 and 139 points in their last three games, which is a bad sign for coach Jamahl Mosley, who was hired this summer to fix the team’s defense after building a strong reputation in that area during his five years with Orlando, notes Les East of NOLA. “I’m not doing my job in this moment by getting guys to sit down and guard,” Mosley admitted Wednesday.
• Before Wednesday’s game, Mosley explained why Derik Queen left the bench and wandered around the court during the midst of action Monday at Golden State (Twitter video link from Luca Evans of The San Franciso Chronicle), relays Rod Walker of NOLA. “The thing about that was Derik had been talking about his neck prior to the game,” Mosley said. “In that moment he had gone to walk back to go get his neck treated on because he was going to lay down and didn’t want to lay down on the bench. That’s a tricky arena to find the locker room.” Even with the explanation, Mosley admitted, “the optics aren’t what we want them to look like.”
• Dejounte Murray deleted a tweet that seemed to express unhappiness with his situation after Wednesday’s loss, per Paolo Mariano of ClutchPoints. In response to a post pointing out the Pelicans’ poor record in games that Murray has played, he wrote, “From what’s going on INSIDE, this sounds like someone hit you to say this! THE ‘SABOTAGE’ IS REAL!!!!!!”