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NEW ORLEANS — The Utah Jazz are halfway home — or something like that.
The Jazz dropped the first of a two-game tank-off with the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday, falling 136-123 at the Smoothie King Center.
The teams (who have the two worst records in the Western Conference) will meet again on Monday in New Orleans. It’s not all that hyperbolic to call this two-game set the most important set of the season for Utah.
The Pelicans (11-32) now have more wins than the Jazz (10-30), and another Jazz loss would put them in prime position to be among the worst finishers in the league.
In fact, only the Washington Wizards currently have fewer wins than Utah does this season.
And it does appear the Jazz have officially joined the race to the bottom. Yeah, rebuilding isn’t fun — it is what it is.
Utah’s injury report was long on Friday: Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Walker Kessler, Lauri Markannen, Johnny Juzang, Taylor Hendricks and Micah Potter were all out for the Jazz
Some missed the game due to legitimate reasons (Hendricks, Clarkson); others less so. Kessler, for example, is in tip-top shape, the young age of 23, and sat out for “rest” for the second time in three games. On that note, Collin Sexton — a player with apparent never-ending energy — also missed Wednesday’s loss to the Hornets for “rest.”
So, yeah, Utah is starting to be pretty shameless. And it didn’t take long for the Pelicans to take full advantage of Utah’s short-handed roster.
New Orleans jumped out to a 42-22 advantage after the first quarter. The Jazz cut it to single digits a few times, but New Orleans always had another run in them.
CJ McCollum scored 15 of his 26 points in the first quarter to push the Pelicans to the big lead, and then Jose Alvarado scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to finish off the Jazz.
And Alvarado’s flurry came after a little skirmish with Utah rookie point guard Isaiah Collier.
Early in the quarter, Alvarado tried his trademark steal where he hides out of bounds before sneaking up behind a ball handler and poking the ball free, but it didn’t work on Collier. That led to some grabbing and pushing between the players with Alvarado being the aggressor. At least, that’s what the officials thought, giving Alvarado the lone technical during the exchange.
That only seemed to spark the New Orleans guard. On the next Pelicans possession, Alvarado drilled a 3-pointer — and then kept on doing just that. He made five triples in the fourth to foil any hope of a Jazz comeback.
But, for the Jazz, that is secondary at this point of the year.
Utah has made it more than clear this season is about developing young players and putting itself in the best position for the draft lottery.
So there were still plenty of positives on Friday.
Collier had a career-high 11 assists to only two turnovers and is now averaging 9.0 assists in his last five games. Brice Sensabaugh scored in double figures for the fifth straight game, finishing with 15 points. Keyonte George had 26 points and and four rebounds.
Drew Eubanks, meanwhile, played solid defense on Zion Williamson for most of the night.
Oh, and the Jazz lost a critical lottery game.
“There’s still so much positive to take from this game, and that’s the stuff that I have to focus on, and our staff has to focus on,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “There’s always things to clean up, but this is the part of the season where people start to drift. Your focus starts to drift, your energy can start to drift, everybody starts talking about this time of year and, oh, we’re tired, and All-Star break is sort of in sight. And that’s not something we’re going to give into.”
