March 4th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Utah Jazz - 29-36
We won two in a row. The first one, against Phoenix, made sense. They've spent 6 years tanking, and frankly it's pretty impressive how polished they are at it. I'm convinced they could go 0-82 if they felt like it. The second one, against Denver, made no sense if you just heard about it, but when you find out that Jokic played 14 minutes less than his average due to foul trouble, and Denver had one of their worse shooting performances this season from deep, it makes more sense. Okay.
Tonight, we play Utah. Utah are very good. They are 4-1 over their last 5 games, and 16-7 since January 1st. They are the 18th best ORTG in the league, but 3rd in defense, and that's why they're 36-26. Frankly, that record doesn't reflect the quality of their play. They started the season pretty slowly (11-12 going into December) but have gone 25-14 since then, which is a bit more accurate.
Donovan Mitchell's shooting has regressed overall this season (only 34% from deep) but that too is impacted by Utah's slow start. He's actually shooting 39% from deep in 2019, and has actually average 28.5ppg since January 1st. He's averaging 23ppg on the season, and despite that slow start to the season, he's a real offensive weapon. He played 39 minutes last night and dropped 46 to help Utah topple Milwaukee.
Other than him, their main guy is Rudy Gobert. Gobert's numbers are pretty good but nothing spectucular (15/12.8 with 2.2bpg) but his impact has been huge. He has played 61 games, 30mpg, and still has a ridiculous +31 net rating. When he's on court, Utah is fantastic. Excellent defender (although he's not too great on the perimeter, he's still okay) and although he has very little offensive versatility, he knows that and he plays under control and with purpose. Sometimes it's not about being the most skilled player on the planet, but in knowing your own game and executing properly with consistency and focus. Gobert does that.
Tonight, barring any weird minutes fluctuations like Denver, we will probably lose this game. But I'm looking forward to seeing, with AD and Moore out, tons of minutes for Frank, Kenrich, and Diallo, and hopefully Gentry will see it in his kind heart to allow Okafor a few moments on court as well.
Let's go and #DoItBig!
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Originally Posted by WildlifeAirGrp
