Utah Jazz route New Orleans Pelicans in back-to-back rematch

After night’s Utah Jazz vs New Orleans Pelicans game, we couldn’t go to our usual “studs vs duds” format. There were no Jazz duds in this 127-105 dismantling of the Pelicans.

Bojan Bogdanovic didn’t have a great night. The Croatian sharpshooter finished with 11 points on 2/7 shooting from the field and 0/3 shooting from three-point range. Nonetheless, he deserves credit for deferring to his hotter teammates and showing restraint. Evidently, his performance wasn’t weak enough to affect the team. Coupled with the fact that he hit all 7 of his free throws, we’re not comfortable designating him as a dud.

Simply put, he did enough on a night where every single one of his teammates was maximized on offense.

Utah Jazz hit peak efficiency

The Jazzmen’s shooting percentages in this contest looked like the results of an NBA 2K22 game on Rookie difficulty. They shot 56.3% from the field and 57.1% on 35 three-point attempts. If they don’t have a more efficient night from the field for the remainder of the 2021-22 season, nobody could blame them.

The squad achieved this level of efficiency without deviating from their season-long gameplan. The 35 threes they attempted were down a notch from their 41.5 attempts per game, but it felt like a function of game flow rather than a conscious decision. A large portion of the philosophical justification in launching so many triples is that it opens up the floor for easier dunk/layup attempts.

The Utah Jazz just so happened to get a whole lot of those on Saturday night.

Utah Jazz guards break slump in major way

If we had gone with the “studs and duds” format for this article, recently slumping guards Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson would have earned strong nods in the former category. Mitchell scored 21 points on 9/17 shooting from the field and 3/6 shooting from three-point range, adding 7 assists and 7 rebounds in the process.

Meanwhile, any Utah Jazz fan must have smiled from ear-to-ear watching Jordan Clarkson operate. He had 20 points on 8/13 shooting from the field and 4/6 shooting from downtown.

A little more consistency would go a long way towards salvaging Clarkson’s season, but he was in wonderful form in this contest. Hopefully, that’s the beginning of an elongated trend. We would personally love to start casting the league’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year in a more positive light.

Utah Jazz get widespread contributions

Outside of the Jazz’s two volume scoring guards, the team benefitted from quality contributions across the team. Rudy Gobert was a little quiet, as the 3x Defensive Player of the Year attempted four field goals in total, hitting half of them. He finished with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, but as is always the case with Gobert, his contributions went beyond the box score. His rim protection was as elite as it always is, and his gravity as a roll man led to quality opportunities for Jazz players on several occasions.

Joe Ingles filled in the starting lineup for the injured Royce O’Neale, and he did not disappoint. He finished with 15 points on 4/5 shooting from the field (all of which were three-point attempts) and chipped in 5 assists. The Jazz may miss O’Neale on the defensive end, but it’s fair to say that the starting lineup was more effective offensively with Ingles in it. While the change was made out of necessity, it might be worth monitoring if the Jazz play a higher quality opponent with O’Neale on the sidelines.

Otherwise, Mike Conley added 20 points on 8/12 shooting from the field and 4/7 shooting from three-point range. Rudy Gay chipped in 13 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Basically, the Utah Jazz were an unstoppable, cohesive unit in this contest.

The Utah Jazz improved to 13-7 in this contest simply by beating a team they were supposed to beat. That hasn’t always been a given in 2021-22: hopefully it can be moving forward.