Favors’ Jazz Get Revenge in New Orleans

The Jazz’s bigs stymied the Pelicans in a revenge win on Wednesday in New Orleans. (Layne Murdoch Jr. via Pelicans.com)

The Utah Jazz faced the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday evening, just two nights after they dropped a heartbreaker to the same team. In Monday’s contest, the Jazz let a 17-point lead slip through their fingers, as the Pelicans unleashed a late 22-2 run to help earn themselves an upset victory in Salt Lake City. The loss came despite both Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver scoring 20 points off the bench. Rarely do teams get 20-point outings from multiple reserves in non-blowouts.

After Monday’s collapse, Utah entered the Smoothie King Center on Wednesday with a chance to earn a revenge victory against the Pels. The Jazz would claim the victory due in large part to the play of the often unheralded Derrick Favors, who scored a season high-25 points. Favors only missed two shots all night, and you knew it was going to be a good game when he nailed his first attempt from three early in the game. Utah would go on to win, 114-104.

Since the All-Star break, Favors has been on a largely unnoticed tear, scoring 17.4 points, to go along with 10 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. After the game, Favors was asked about how well he has been playing as of late, and if he believes he is playing the best basketball of his career.

.@dfavors14 | 25p/2b/1s/1a/5r 🎥#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/yNqDWlq5mk

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 7, 2019

 “I definitely do,” said Favors. “I put in a lot of work this offseason. I just wanted to come back and show what I can do on the court on the offensive end and just play my role and just try to get some wins and get into the playoffs.”

The Jazz were up by as many as 18 points in this one, but a string of turnovers led to a 14-4 run by the Pels and brought up memories of Monday night’s defeat. Favors continued his strong play to help close the game out for the Jazz. He scored a game high nine points in the fourth quarter to help put this one away.

As good as Favors played in this game, it was a well-rounded effort. Two other Jazzmen joined Favors with 20-plus points: Gobert had 22, 13 rebounds and four blocks, while Mitchell chipped in 22 as well. They were also helped by their floor generals, Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles, each of whom doled out 10 assists.

The Jazz will now continue their march up the Western Conference standings. They are currently sitting 10 games above .500 at 37-27, and are within striking distance of homecourt advantage. The three teams ahead of them all have the same 39-25 record. The Jazz have one of the easiest remaining schedules in the league, so there is a good chance that one or more of Portland, OKC, or Houston could slip and fall beneath them in the standings. Per FiveThirtyEight the Jazz are projected to finish with a 50-32 record, which would put them in a three way tie for the fourth seed with Portland and OKC.

They will next play the Memphis Grizzlies on the road before returning home for a massive matchup against the OKC Thunder on Monday. The Thunder are 3-0 against the Jazz this season, but the last two games have been decided by one point each. The Thunder have also been struggling as of late, going just 2-5 since the All-star break. They will face the Portland Trailblazers and the LA Clippers prior to visiting Utah on Monday.