NEW ORLEANS — Congratulations to the Utah Jazz, who have shown in the last few days that there is always a way to push the tank forward.
On Friday night they were handily beat by the New Orleans Pelicans, 136-123 — a score that doesn’t really reflect how easy it was for Zion Williamson and company to win. And on this roadtrip, where the Jazz will face the Pelicans once more on Monday night, it was really, really important for the Jazz decision makers to find a way to finagle a loss against the Pelicans.
The problem with the Jazz lately has been that even with most of their usual high-scoring, starting players sidelined with minor injuries, the young players, two-way guys and end-of-bench players have been just hungry and scrappy enough to eek out a few wins.
So, over the last few days the Jazz have employed an interesting new strategy — resting healthy, young players. They rested 23-year-old Walker Kessler on Sunday, then rested 26-year-old Collin Sexton on Wednesday after the Jazz already had two days off. That strategy continued into the road trip, with Kessler once again rested against the Pelicans on Friday night.
The loss to the Pelicans moved the Jazz into last place in the Western Conference and their 10-30 record is the third worst in the NBA, exactly where they want to be (if not second or very worst) when the season ends in order to go into the draft lottery with the best possible odds at the No. 1 overall pick.
Ostensibly, since the Jazz have two days between their games in New Orleans, they won’t be able to get away with resting Kessler again, but don’t be surprised if the Jazz find someone else on the roster who needs to take a night off. Sexton, who scored 24 points on Friday could be a candidate, but so could Drew Eubanks, who actually did a pretty decent job guarding Williamson in the loss.
“Drew doesn’t get talked about very much … but Drew did a heck of a job guarding Zion tonight,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “His teammates gave him help and made some plays with their hands, but I thought that drew did a really, really good job guarding someone who’s very, very difficult to guard one-on-one.”
Careful, Eubanks — consistently good nights are not going to be welcomed by the powers that be these days.
But the Jazz need to be careful here, because if the Pelicans’ brass are doing their jobs correctly, they’ll be looking for avenues to worsen their own team’s odds for Monday’s game. The Pelicans aren’t a playoff-bound team and their current three-game win streak has to have the New Orleans front office pulling at their hair and looking for minor injuries that they can take advantage of on the injury report in the coming days.
If New Orleans doesn’t rest someone or find a player to add to the injury report, the team that is feeling boosted by a win streak is going to be hungry to keep it going.
That’s thinking too far ahead though. Tonight there are certainly some salty players on the Jazz roster who wish that they were playing rather than watching in street clothes, but the front office and the fans who are thinking about the possibility of a top draft pick in June are celebrating a small victory.
