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Sarah Todd
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Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) shoots over New Orleans Pelicans guard Josh Hart (3) at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Utah hit New Orleans with a 3-point barrage on Tuesday night for a 118-102 win
The Utah Jazz hit the New Orleans Pelicans with a 3-point barrage on Tuesday night for a 118-102 win at Vivint Arena.
High notes
- When the scouting report says that the New Orleans Pelicans allow the highest volume of 3-point attempts, you take as many 3s as you can. The Jazz clearly planned to overwhelm New Orleans from the perimeter and they absolutely killed the Pelicans with drive-and-kick action.
- The Jazz shot 47 3-pointers and hit them at a 47.7% clip with Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson accounting for 16 of the Jazz’s made treys.
- The Pelicans decided to put smaller guards on Mitchell through most of the game, which was a mistake. Not only did it give Mitchell length to be able to finish over the top of his defender, but it also gave him sight on those drive-and-kicks I mentioned up top. Exhibit A:
- The Jazz had quite a few offensive possessions broken up, but they were a lot more composed in those situations than they have been lately. They maintained control of the ball and actually recovered to score in most cases.
- Zion Williamson’s ability to finish in traffic or to just go straight through someone is such a treasure. That kind of offensive strength and touch is rare.
- It took just a couple of times of Williamson scoring over the top of Rudy Gobert for the Stifle Tower to become rightfully annoyed, which is the kind of Gobert that I think plays the best. Gobert was excellent on Tuesday. He rebounded with force, was active on putbacks and finished with 13 points, 18 rebounds and three blocks.
- Ingles returned to play after missing three straight games with a sore right Achilles and acquitted himself pretty well, hitting 5 of 6 from deep and finished with 12 points in 18 minutes.
Low notes
- Williamson might be incredibly gifted on the offensive end, but boy oh boy does he need to improve on the defensive side of things. His inability to stay in front of his man creates so many rotation and help problems for the Pelicans’ overall defensive schemes.
- The Jazz seem to have a little bit of a Mike Conley problem lately. Conley isn’t doing anything wrong. On the contrary, he’s been great for the Jazz. But there were a few stretches when Conley sat down and it looked like the Jazz completely forgot what they were doing. It’s happened in a few games, actually. Transitioning from one lineup to another is something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.
Flat notes
- Bogdanovic committed three turnovers in the first five minutes of the game. Not great. To his credit though, he kept his head on through the rest of the game and didn’t let it affect him on offense and didn’t commit another turnover for the rest of the night.
- It’s not like the Pelicans don’t have players that can shoot, that’s not why they ended up shooting 6 of 26 from beyond the arc. They just don’t have any spacing at all. If you can’t create a situation where Brandon Ingram or Lonzo Ball have open looks, and when JJ Redick is forced to shoot late shot clock 3s off the dribble, then you’re doing something really wrong.
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