NBA Re-Opening Night: Notes from the New Orleans Pelicans vs. Utah Jazz

Notes from the Utah Jazz’s big win on NBA re-opening night

After an unprecedented four-and-a-half month hiatus, the NBA finally returned on Thursday night with a dandy between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans to tip-off the re-opening festivities.

Utah got off to a fast start, taking a 19-8 lead just five minutes into the game. Rudy Gobert had the Pelicans seeing ghosts at the rim, and Mike Conley’s pep-to-his-step was encouraging on the offensive end. Coming out of a timeout, New Orleans dominated the rest of the first half. They victimized a frigid Jazz team, turning defense into offense through quick outlets and cross-matches off of misses – something we’ve seen from them all year.

The Pelicans went on another run later in the second period, led by Brandon Ingram. He brought everything in his scoring toolkit during this stretch – working in the mid-post, using off-ball screens, and running pick-and-roll. This also exposed a major weakness for Utah in its lack of a wing stopper.

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Royce O’Neale is a fine defender, but Ingram has several inches on him. The Jazz’s lack of depth with the Bojan Bogdanovic injury was brought to light too, as Jordan Clarkson, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Georges Niang struggled mightily during this half. Clarkson in particular was really detrimental to the offense; his over-dribbling and no-pass possessions became infectious. All in all, New Orleans outscored Utah 52-29 throughout the rest of the half after the early deficit.

The Jazz starting lineup of Conley/Mitchell/Ingles/O’Neale/Gobert can still score with anyone, and in the third quarter, it showed – cutting the Pelicans lead to six at the 3:25 mark. Part of it was New Orleans’ leaky defense, which is why it’s difficult to take them too seriously. Rotations in the pick-and-roll were completely non-existent.

Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram were falling asleep off-ball. And the non-Jrue Holiday perimeter players were getting dusted on drives. They seemed to right the ship towards the end of the quarter, thanks to a four-guard lineup that gave Utah matchup problems (JJ Redick got two threes in semi-transition because nobody on the Jazz knew who was supposed to be guarding him).

It was the aforementioned Clarkson who kept Utah in the game. He was getting into the paint at will against the smaller Frank Jackson, truly a tale of two halves for him.

Things got tight in the fourth, and like time and time again this season, New Orleans could not come through late. They scored just eight points in the final seven minutes. Both teams missed several makeable jumpers down the stretch, but Utah did just enough to close it out.

Donovan Mitchell beat Holiday off the dribble to set up Gobert, who hit two clutch free-throws. The Pelicans had one final opportunity, down by two with 6.9 seconds left. The play appeared to be designed for Redick coming off multiple stagger screens, and instead, Ingram took a tough three that rattled in-and-out.

Ingram and Lonzo Ball had a few hero-ball moments in crunch-time, while Utah was generally the more composed and polished team; a sign of their continuity. It would have been nice to see Williamson (minutes-restriction) on the floor here.

For the Pelicans, this is a disappointing loss, though not necessarily crippling. They play the LA Clippers on Saturday, followed by six games where they should be favored (including a crucial showdown with the 8-seed Grizzlies). The pressure is now magnified to take care of business in these contests that they theoretically “should” win.

From Utah’s perspective, their main objective should be staying out of the 7-seed to avoid the Clippers, and this victory helps them with that. The Western Conference is so jumbled from 3-6 that it’s hard to say what else this means in terms of playoff match-ups just yet.

Other Notes:

• Both teams came out as you’d expect from a long layoff – out of sync offensively (20 turnovers each) and defensively (uncharacteristic breakdowns and miscommunications, lapses in transition).
• The intensity/energy was definitely closer to a playoff game than a regular-season game, which is a good sign for basketball in the bubble.
• Jrue Holiday was a monster on both ends – hounding Donovan Mitchell the entire game and hitting pull-up jumpers against Utah’s drop coverages
• Rough bubble debut for “the Minivan” (Georges Niang), who looked completely out of place out there. Something to keep an eye on as Utah figures out how to replace Bojan Bogdanovic’s minutes.
• Lonzo Ball was a liability on offense in the halfcourt, even though he was startlingly aggressive in hunting his own shot.

• Utah’s starting lineup was +17. They will still be a formidable out in the playoffs if they can muster any kind of bench production.