Did Utah Win? 17th Edition.

Welcome to the Lazy Utahn’s recap of the most recent Utah Jazz game. Do you want to talk to your friends about the game, impress them with cool stats, and act like you watch all 82 games like a true die hard even if you didn’t catch the big game last night? We got you covered in this simplistic breakdown of each topic that may arise from the latest Utah Jazz showdown.

Well, Did Utah win?
Yes, the Utah Jazz won and honestly, the scene couldn’t have been sweeter.

It was 70s night at the Delta center. The Jazz were rocking their classic purple uniforms that Pistol Pete himself donned with the hardwood floor to match. And the opponent, ah yes the opponent.

As the Jazz celebrated 50 years of basketball it’s easy to forget that a good chunk of those years took place in the bayou out in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As an expansion team, the Jazz were one of the worst in the association.

It didn’t take long for them to eventually move to the mountains of Salt Lake.

1974 is when they were founded, 1979 is when they made the move to Utah.

In Utah’s 114-112 victory over the Pelicans last night, it was only fitting that they bested the team currently located in New Orleans while wearing Mardi Gras colors, and selling New Orleans centered merchandise.

Utah now moves to 6-11 on the season and has won back-to-back ball games for the second time this season by sweeping the miniseries in Salt Lake City.

These wins seem extra pertinent due to the fact, that Utah had looked absolutely atrocious in losses to the Lakers and Portland Trailblazers, so seeing a positive effort was much needed in Jazz land.

The Pelicans also are at least a bare minimum, mediocre team. So, Utah can take some solace in consecutive wins against component competition.

Enough with the history lesson old man, let’s talk hoops.

Two things stood out in this victory for Utah.

The first thing is going to be Utah’s defensive performance. Now the 112 they gave up was nothing spectacular by any means but for the Jazz that’s only the fifth time this season that they’ve held an opponent below 115.

Outside of the Denver Nugget, this Pelicans group is probably the most potent offensively talented team that Utah has been able to semi-somewhat slowdown from a defensive standpoint, which is a positive step in the right Direction.
The second major bullet point that we have to touch it on is: The Utah Jazz finally looked like a capable professional basketball team.

Coach Hardy alluded to this in his post-game presser citing that they finally feel like a team.

The statistics back that up for the Jazz as well. Check out these numbers from one of the most balanced performances of the season, if not, the most balanced:

Taking care of the basketball, and taking care of your teammates, was a common theme throughout the victory against the Pelicans.

On top of that, the defense has been bolstered by the return of Walker Kessler, who we will touch on a little later, as well as Omer Yurtseven, getting major rotation minutes and starting the last couple games .

Did I mention that Lauri Markkanen has not played in these two victories, allowing Utah to learn and grow without their best player.

Well tell me about some of these dudes. Who balled out?

I know the biggest thing is the singling out the individuals who had the best games, but Utah’s win was the definition of a team effort.

Not a single player scored more than 20 points last night which typically for the Jazz is bad.

But then you realize that seven of the 10 players to touch the floor last night had double digit scoring which for the Jazz isn’t typical but definitely good.

The Jazz were lead from a scoring perspective by rookie Keyonte George, who posted a new career high of 19 points.

George looked incredibly comfortable scoring the basketball. He took shots in rhythm and did not hesitate to shoot the basketball when he had an open opportunity.

Knowing that George took eight three-point attempts, just as many as Simone Fontecchio, and one less than Jordan Clarkson, should tell you that Utah has done everything they can as a coaching staff and organization to encourage the young man to be a primary scorer.

This was a roll that was previously only held by Jordan Clarkson and Lauri Markkanen alone, and now has expanded to George.

Speaking of Jordan Clarkson, he was incredibly impressive outside of a shot or two late in the ballgame.

This is due to the fact that he was willing to distribute. Clarkson recorded 10 assists, his first double digit mark of the entire season when it comes to distributing the basketball.

He would finish with 16 points.

Omer Yurtseven also saw the starting lineup for the second game in a row and continue to provide big energy with his ability to rebound and contest shots he would finish with 10 rebounds, two blocks and score 7.

Walker Kessler continued to spell Yurtseven off the bench. He returns from his injury slowly, but surely, and that injury may have been causing a little bit more damage than initially expected, because Walker Kessler is officially back!

With a little bit of rest and relaxation, it’s been insane to see Kessler return to the from that Jazz fans became familiar with his rookie year.

Kessler was 7/9 from the field for 14 points. He ripped down eight board and had 3 assists. He did it all in under 26 minutes.

John Collins continued to be a double-digit scorer, as he’s done every single game the season with 12 points. He was limited on the boards with only three rebounds.

Collin Sexton had 11 points mostly behind three triples that he was able to knock down. But to the dismay of Jazz fans, recorded zero assist next to four turnovers.

If you’re looking for small guard improvements on this Jazz roster, then look at Talen Horton-Tucker.

In his 19 minutes he shot two of nine for five points, which is rather atrocious, yet he was incredible in a distributor spot off the bench for the Jazz leading all secondary players with seven assists.

The best part may be the zero turnovers.

Ochai Agbaji was also incredibly impactful in this game and in under 17 minutes he had 12 points, and created his own shot a time here and there.

Agbaji went four for seven from the field and 50% from beyond the arc on six tries. Funnily enough he didn’t record any other statistics other than one personal foul, but did have one sick poster dunk that you can check out right below.

One of the most impactful players on the night was none other than Simone Fontecchio, who absolutely showed up. Coach Hardy has been trusting him with more and the Italian stallion has been delivering. Fontecchio played 28 minutes with 14 points, four rebounds, 2 assist and had 2 steals.

Other than a stellar stat line, Fontecchio deserves a ton of credit for his defense. No one was quite expecting him to be the stopper of Pelican’s superstar, Brandon Ingram, that he was.

He was given the main assignment and took full advantage of the opportunity.

Ingram had 25 points but it took 22 shots to get there and the Pelicans were stymied offensively more so when Fontecchio was on the floor.

His impact was enough for Coach Hardy to make sure he commented on it after the game.

Here’s Fontecchio’s statistical break down within his last four games courtesy of David J Smith.

Man, Simone was getting stops, who played well for New Orleans?

Well the Pelicans had Zion Williamson, who they didn’t have in the prior contest and he played what you can call “well.” He had 26 points and seven assists.

We mention Brandon Ingram’s 25 points on 22 shot attempts. He also had five assists, and four rebounds, and did not convert on a three point try.

Jonas Valanciunas had 14 and 13 for a Pelican double-double.

Jordan Hawkins cooled off a little bit from the first match up with 13 points on 11 shots but did go three of six from deep.

Herb Jones had 10 for the Pelicans and Naji Marshall had 14.

That Agbaji slam was tight, how is there a play cooler than that?

Ochai throwing down was sick but there were two poster events in 70s-night style against New Orleans.

Keyonte George had a career night so it’s only fitting that we give him the honors:

Give me a stat, random style.

Here you can see the Jazz have the makings of being a winning basketball team, considering that they’re pretty solid rebounding the ball’

Who got next? Let’s keep this winning train rolling along.

Utah takes on Memphis tomorrow for the third time this season.

The Jazz look to go 3-0 this year against the Grizzlies.