by Alma Bean
Feature Image by Megan Nielsen of Deseret News
The Utah Jazz (5-11) takes on the New Orleans Pelicans (9-8) in their second matchup in the last three days for 70’s night.
Shake Your Groove Thang
Utah started off this game ready to fire. John Collins (12 points and 3 rebounds) in the first three minutes asserted his dominance from the corner shooting 2/3 (66.7%) in from of the New Orleans bench. Collins wasn’t the only one trying to apply high pressure to New Orleans early. Utah as a team continuously looked for the extra pass to find the open man and on ball defense was at its best this season. Even with that applied pressure, New Orleans turned to the hot hand from Saturday’s matchup Jordan Hawkins (13 points and 5 rebounds) who also shot 2/3 (66.7%) from the perimeter in the first quarter. After a very aggressive performance from Utah, they finished the quarter with a 32-24 lead.
Second quarter showed an emphasis on explosive dunks. Starting off with an expected dunk for Walker Kessler (14/8/3) with the alley-oop assist from Kelly Olynyk (4/4/4). Even tried to get a second one a few possessions later but was unsuccessful. New Orleans didn’t like the flashiness from Utah, so Jose Alvarado (4/1/2) took it upon himself to get an alley-oop to Zion Williamson (26/4/7). After a few more failed attempts for Utah, Talen Horton-Tucker (5/3/7) was able to set Ochai Agbaji (12 points) up for a thrilling and-one alley-oop. After thinking Agbaji’s alley-oop would be the play of the game, Utah fans were treated with yet another emphatic dunk but with an unlikely player on the receiving end. With less than a minute left in the half, Simone Fontecchio (14/4/2) delivered a no look pass to Keyonte George (19/5/3) with the posterizing dunk on Dyson Daniels (2/3/4). Though New Orleans outscored Utah in the quarter, Utah went into the half with a 57-55 lead.
What’s Going On
The start of the second half leaned heavily into free throw line. After shooing 11/12 (91.7%) from the line in the first half, Utah shot 12/15 (80%) in the third quarter. It’s hard to miss the free throw line when Utah was already in the bonus with 8:40 left in the quarter. Jordan Clarkson (16/4/10) led that charge shooting 3/3 (100%) from the line when none of his other shots could go in, shooting 0/5 (0%) from the field in the quarter. even though his shot wasn’t going in, Clarkson was uncharacteristically finding the open man. Getting to double digit assists for the first time this season where Clarkson only did so twice last season and just his fourth time in his Utah tenure. Brandon Ingram (25/4/5) looked like a machine in the third quarter looking like he couldn’t miss. Shooting 4/6 (66.7%) from the field in the quarter, Ingram is the reason why New Orleans kept thins close as this game was tied 88-88 going into the fourth.
The fourth quarter found its way towards the perimeter for Utah. Shooting 4/13 () within the perimeter, Utah stretched out the floor and shot 6/12 (50%) from the perimeter. Agbaji had the most consistent shot for Utah in the quarter shooting 2/3 (66.7%). Perimeter shots are looking to fall for George as his only three for the quarter gave him his new career-high in points with 19. With a few minutes left in the quarter, it looked like Utah had locked this game up, but Herbert Jones (10 points and 4 rebounds) with a late perimeter shot with a minute left kept fans in their seats for the final possessions. With ten seconds left in the game, New Orleans had three shot attempts to send this game into overtime from Ingram, Naji Marshall (14/9/3) and Williamson and all three were unsuccessful as Utah gets their first two-game win streak of the season after a 114-112 win.
What’s Next
Utah will go on a two-game road trip on Wednesday starting with the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Hive Sports 
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