The Utah Jazz came into New Orleans in the middle of their 6-game Pre-Christmas road trip. This was the second game of the trip. The Jazz were without Derrick Favors once again with a sprained ankle that he suffered against the Miami Heat on Friday night. The Jazz entered the game on a 2 game losing streak. Utah opened up strong with a 6 point lead by the end of the first quarter. The Pelicans pulled within 3 at the half, trailing Utah 56-53. Like in previous games, the Jazz continued to play well in the third quarter of the game, outscoring the Pelicans 33-25 to take a 89-78 lead heading into the 4th quarter. That was where the Jazz would cool down. New Orleans surged back led by Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson to help the Pelicans outscore the Jazz 41-22 to lift the Pelicans to a 119-111 win over the Utah Jazz. Enes Kanter led the way for Utah with a career high 29 points and 7 rebounds in 36 minutes on 12 of 22 from the field. Gordon Hayward added 17 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds on 7 of 16 shooting in 35 minutes. Alec Burks struggled shooting the ball scoring 16 points on 6 of 18 shooting from the field. Trey Burke added 16 points, 6 rebounds and only 1 assist. If you want to win games, your point guard needs to have more than 1 assist. The Jazz had 19 assists as a team and the Pelicans dished out 24 assists.
The Pelicans were led by Anthony Davis with 31 points and 9 rebounds on 12 of 15 shooting. He was a game-time decision coming in as he suffered a chest contusion on Sunday against the Warriors. Ryan Anderson came off the bench and dropped 28 points on 10 of 15 shooting from the field including 6 of 10 from downtown.
The Jazz are currently lacking the ability to close out games. For the most part, they are in every game they play, play extremely well in the 3rd quarter, but can’t finish teams off in the 4th quarter.
The Pelicans improve to 12-12 on the season and will head to Houston to face the Rockets on Thursday. The Jazz fall to 6-19 (2-10) on the road and have lost their last 3 games. They will be back in action Wednesday night as they head to South Beach to face the Miami Heat.
