Pelicans Reaction: New Orleans bully Jazz in paint to earn biggest win of season
Despite a shaky finish to the game, New Orleans bullied Utah to the tune of 74 points in the paint to earn its biggest win of the season, 129-124.
The Pelicans overcame attempting just 11 3-pointers and being outscored by 30 points on the perimeter by outscoring the Jazz by 18 on points in the paint and shoot 56.5% from the field.
New Orleans’ big three of Zion Williamson (26 points), Brandon Ingram (26) and Lonzo Ball (23) combined to score 75 points for the Pelicans on the night. Six scored in double figures for the hosts with JJ Redick added 17 off the bench.
Utah was led by Bojan Bogdanovic’s 31 points while Gobert had 22 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
The Good: Zion Williamson's 3rd quarter
Williamson wasn't great the entirety of Monday night but had arguably the best quarter of his career. After a fairly quiet first half, Williamson exploded in the third quarter, scoring 15 points with two rebounds and two assists. The way he got his points were most impressive, though. No Jazz player - Rudy Gobert, Royce O'Neale or Derrick Favors - could stop Williamson from getting to the rim. He helped the Pelicans to 74 points in the paint, a staggering total particularly against a defense anchored by a multiple time Defensive Player of the Year in Gobert. Honorable mentions: Brandon Ingram
The Bad: The end of the game
After an impressive first 42 minutes of the game where the Pelicans looked set to cruise to a comfortable win, the Jazz pieced together one last run that cut the lead all the way down to a single point. In fact, Utah had a chance to take the lead but the Pelicans stiffened up just enough defensively to hang onto the win. The offense, as it tends to do late in close games for New Orleans, ground to a halt and shots stopped falling. Defensively, the 3-pointers Utah didn't hit most of the night dropped and it quickly cut into the deficit. To the Pelicans credit, they never looked panicked or rushed and executed just enough down the stretch to hold on.
Lonzo Ball: Closer
Ball was impressive from start to finish on Monday, but it was the latter where he was needed more. When the Pelicans were starting to struggle to close, Ball made a handful of plays that at least briefly held off the Jazz rally. On the night, he finished with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting overall and 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point territory with eight assists and seven rebounds. In the fourth quarter, he had seven points, five rebounds and two assists to help close out the win.
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