Game 31: Utah Jazz (16-14) vs New Orleans Pelicans (18-9)

[Inigo Montoya]

Let's see if the Jazz can play defense as well as they did in the previous game, which was their best defensive game of the season (I forgot where I read it) or if the Pelicans can make adjustments and win this one.

Ingram and Alvarado are listed as OUT for the Pelicans.
Juzang and Fontecchio are listed as OUT for the Jazz.

[FranchisePlayer]

The Finnisher vs. Zion.

[Crunch 99]

This team has so much fight in them. There were lots of contributors again: Clarkson and Markannen with red hot shooting, rookie Kessler with another impressive game defending the paint, rebounding and scoring, and Conley with good leadership and assists in clutch time even when he was having a bad shooting game.

[Cappy_Smurf]

Weird game when you look at the charts:

Rebounds - 49 to 44 for the pels

Assists/blocks/steals/turnovers all even for both teams

Shooting % - 47.5 to 45.7 for the pels

3 point % - 40 to 38.3 for the pels

FT % - 82.1 to 81.1 for the pels

Points in the paint - 52 to 40 for the pels

2nd chance points - 26 to 25 for Jazz

Fast break - 13 to 7 for the pels

Utah had 9 more free throws, which is the only significant difference for the Jazz and they managed to pull off the win.

The Grizz and Pels are the top 2 teams in the west right now and Utah is 5-0 against them.

[FJS]

I have no true faith in Jazz wininng two in a row vs them... but man, you can wait anything with this team.. they can win (and lose) vs every team.

[Inigo Montoya]

Another fun game.

The Pelicans started the game missing a wide open layup and a wide open dunk and the first thing I thought was that if they end up losing this game by 4 points or less, then we know why. And sure enough...

Nance Jr. deserves a lot of credit, as he was involved in the two plays at the end of regulation that really saved the Pelicans. First, he guarded the inbound pass and managed to deflect it out of bounds (I think it was him). That was critical because the Jazz had a mismatch with Markkanen on a smaller player and that's where they tried to go. That deflection allowed the Pelicans to adjust defensively and put Nance Jr. on Markkanen, and he made a great play to save what looked to be a shot that was going in to win the game, so respect for him there.

I wonder how long until Kessler becomes the starter. He makes a big difference in rebounding and defense. And since both he and V8 foul a lot, they will both still have plenty of time to play each game.

Every passing game that Minnesota trade looks better and better for the Jazz. What a fleecing.

[Crunch 99]

It was good having Conley's veteran leadership back for clutch time even though he was struggling to hit shots. Conley came back in to the game with 3:18 left in regulation and the Jazz down 116-111. He was directly involved in 10 of our next 12 points to close out regulation. He had an assist to Markkanen for a dunk, an assist to Clarkson for an open three, an assist to Markkanen for an open three and he hit two free throws with 12 secs left in regulation to put us up 123-120. McCollum didn't score in that last 3:18 of regulation with Conley in the game.

Conley didn't have any recorded contributions to offensive stats in overtime - he missed a three and he missed two big free throws with 25 secs left, but he immediately made up for missing the late free throws with more stellar defense on McCollum to close out the game. McCollum didn't score in overtime.

I suspect Conley will eventually recover some good shooting rhythm to go along with the other positive ways he impacts games.

Watch on YouTube

[FranchisePlayer]

With 17 wins now 7th in the West. Minnesota at 11th has 13 wins. Even the Grizzlies have only 19 wins. Let's go all the way...