The Utah Jazz got their three-game road trip started out with a bang as they rolled to a commanding 120-95 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night. Given that Atlanta boasted the best record of the three teams the Jazz will face on the road this week, hopefully that will be a good sign moving forward.
Nevertheless, Wednesday’s stop won’t be an easy one as the Jazz will take on the New Orleans Pelicans for the first time this season. Utah split the season series last year despite posting a better record throughout the 2015-16 campaign, so the Jazz will need to be prepared to take care of business against a team that is capable of logging surprising victories.
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The major reason why the Pelicans can be dangerous is because they boast one of the premier NBA stars in the league in power forward/center Anthony Davis.
Davis has been absolutely electrifying this season as he’s averaging 27.9 points, 12.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. He almost single-handedly carries the Pelicans on both ends of the floor game after game.
Thus in essence, Utah’s game plan has to be to cut off the head of the snake by slowing Davis and therefore frustrating the Pelicans team as a whole. Interestingly enough, behind Davis, New Orleans’ second leading scorer is Jrue Holiday who is putting up nearly 12 points per game less than AD and has only appeared in 37 contests. Beyond him, only one other player on the team (Terrence Jones) averages double figures.
This is a tough task, but see if you can figure out who's been best player on New Orleans Pelicans. For help, here's their TPA breakdown: pic.twitter.com/XiW5AgBpcT
— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) January 6, 2017
So it’s quite clear how dramatically the Pelicans sink or swim depending on how Davis is playing. And Utah will have to be well-prepared and not overlook this game because while the Pelicans come into the contest having lost four of their last five, they also recently defeated two elite teams in the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.
If the Jazz are to take care of business and extend their winning streak to four games, the following are the key areas where they’ll have to thrive against New Orleans.