Instant analysis: Jazz come up short against Zion Williamson and the Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson (1) goes to the basket over Utah Jazz forward Georges Niang, left, and center Rudy Gobert, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 1, 2021. | Gerald Herbert, Associated Press

The Utah Jazz lost for the second time in three days with a 129-124 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night.

High Notes

• This game kind of had everything you want and don’t want in a basketball game. Back and forth, a ton of highlight plays in the first few minutes alone, both teams playing at an extremely high pace, drama, a comeback, bad decisions, good decisions — this one had it all. It was offensively competitive, even though there wasn’t much defense on display through most of the game. The Jazz’s defense fell off completely through the third and the early parts of the fourth and then the Jazz surged back and cut the Pelican’s one-time 17-point lead down to just one point. The Pelicans were able to hold on though at the end and they played a pretty exceptional game. This was kind of a bad loss for the Jazz, but a great basketball game to watch.
• Zion Williamson was great in the first half and then he was ridiculous in the third quarter. Usually a good quarter for the Jazz, Williamson scored 15 of his 26 points in 9:32 on the court during that third period and didn’t look phased at all by the Jazz defense. He’s such a tough player and is so strong around the rim that if he’s allowed to get there he’s nearly impossible to stop.
• Rudy Gobert hit a 20-foot jump shot early in the first quarter and it made me make an audible noise of surprise. That’s certainly not a shot that Gobert is going to be taking a lot and that’s not a shot the Jazz want often, but the confidence in which Gobert took the shot and how smooth it looked was something to make note of. There are weapons in Gobert’s arsenal that he has not fully unleashed.
• Bojan Bogdanovic had an outstanding game making his first five 3-point attempts and finishing the night with a game-high 31 points including going 7-of-11 from deep.

Low Notes

• The conventional place to go when looking at a player like Williamson is to say that the Jazz didn’t have an answer for him. But the truth is that they just flat out didn’t play him well. They could have had more of an answer but they missed those opportunities. They rarely denied him getting the ball in the post, they didn’t play on his front and then they got beat.
• It wasn’t just on Williamson where the Jazz defense failed on Monday. The Jazz were not themselves in all defensive aspects. They allowed 22 fastbreak points and got completely roasted in the paint with the Pelicans scoring 74 of their points from close range.
• Having that many points in the paint could lead you to believe that Gobert had a down game and that would be the wrong read. The Jazz’s perimeter defense was so porous that Gobert was often left surrounded by Pelicans players and though he often did well challenging the first shot or first interior look, the Pelicans had someone else standing by without the Jazz in good position. Gobert is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate but he doesn’t have four arms and can’t be expected to guard multiple people at the rim at the same time, over and over again. Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball did not combine for 49 points because of Gobert, it was because they weren’t stopped on their drives at almost any point.

Flat Notes

• An airball from Donovan Mitchell in the fourth quarter with just over three minutes left to play and the Jazz trailing by 12 points felt like the end of the game, like the Jazz just didn’t have much more to give. Then all of a sudden they cut the Pelicans lead to one point, but their decision making killed them. Had the Jazz actually come back to win this game, it wouldn’t have been that great of a win considering how poor their defense was throughout the game.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3sDV2KV