The Utah Jazz were not in their finest form last night. Luckily, they didn’t need to be to emerge victorious against a banged up New Orleans Pelicans squad. The Jazzmen came away with a 115-104 win.
If you love fastbreaks, you may not have enjoyed watching the Jazz last night. They didn’t score on one once. If you think the key to victory in basketball is to outwork your opponent, last night’s contest didn’t support your argument. The Pelicans outscored the Jazz in second chance points by a total of 29-9. The Jazz arguably had no business winning this game.
At the same time, they couldn’t lose. Pelicans star Brandon Ingram was clearly still recovering from an Achilles injury. He was ultimately available for this game, but the 10 points he scored on 3/18 shooting from the field were not reflective of his usual abilities. He looked compromised, lacking his usual burst to get to the rim and unable to create separation on his jump shot.
Otherwise, these Pelicans were just unable to match a contending Utah Jazz squad, even if it wasn’t their best night. Jonas Valanciunas was magnificent, finishing with 25 points and an uncharacteristic 9 assists. It wasn’t enough to carry his Pelicans to victory.
Here are 2 studs and 1 dud from the Jazz’s performance.
Utah Jazz stud: Bojan Bogdanovic
This game was actually a little closer than the box score may indicate. In the dying moments, Bojan Bogdanovic decided it was one his Jazz couldn’t lose.
With 2:31 remaining, Bogey hit a 3 pointer that extended the Jazz’s lead from 5 to 8. That wasn’t good enough for him, as he pushed their advantage to 11 about a minute later with another deep ball. That shot ended up being the dagger.
All told, Bogdanovic finished with 21 points on 8/17 shooting from the field and 5/11 shooting from three-point range. That’s a great outing in any context, but if you watched this one, you know he had a strong case for player of the game.
On the other hand, Bogdanovic may have risen to the occasion, but one of his starrier teammates carried the Jazz to that occasion in the first place.