The Utah Jazz begin the final stretch of their franchise-record nine-game homestand Sunday night when they host the New Orleans Pelicans in Salt Lake City.
The Jazz are 3-4 at the Delta Center in this swing, including Friday night’s thrilling 117-116 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Both teams built and gave up double-digit leads, with the Jazz coming out on top after Walker Kessler dunked the game-winning bucket with just under 10 seconds left to play.
John Collins assisted Kessler on the basket before making a strong defensive play at the other end to prevent the Timberwolves from pulling off a last-second victory. Minnesota had just erased the Jazz’s late seven-point lead with a 10-2 run.
Collins finished with a team-high 29 points as well as 12 rebounds, and he was pleased that his only assist was to his fellow big man who patrols the paint for the Jazz.
“I try to give Walk back as much as I can,” Collins said. “He does so much on the defensive end, cleans up a lot of messy, messy defense. And whenever the big fella is rewarded, I feel like, as a big man, he plays harder, works harder.”
Kessler finished with nine points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 26 minutes. He never turned the ball over.
The Jazz didn’t have much luck against the Pelicans when the teams met for a pair of games in New Orleans in January. With 24 points and 14 rebounds, Zion Williamson led New Orleans to a 136-123 win on Jan. 17. A few nights later, CJ McCollum dropped 45 points as the Pelicans overcame a 25-point deficit in the franchise’s largest comeback win — a 123-119 overtime victory.
“I don’t take these wins for granted because it took us like two months to get five wins,” McCollum said at the time. “You’ve got to ride the wave and just keep your perspective in check.”
McCollum’s sentiment was almost prescient. New Orleans lost its next 10 games until snapping out of the slump by picking up four wins in five games.
That recent positive stretch for the Pelicans was derailed Friday when the Suns avenged Thursday’s 124-116 loss to New Orleans by beating them 125-108 in a back-to-back set in Phoenix.
Neither Williamson nor McCollum played for New Orleans in that loss, which didn’t help with the outcome, but it gave other players extra opportunities. Coach Willie Green noted that he was happy for a guy like reserve Antonio Reeves to get 11 points in 21 minutes.
“These are opportunities, and those guys, they’re in the gym, they’re with the coaching staff and they’re preparing each and every day,” Green said. “When we have some guys out — look, our margin is small, but we expect them to step on the floor and execute at an extremely high level.
“There are some positives that we can take from this game, but there are some areas that we’ll look at and continue to improve.”
This meeting could affect both teams’ NBA draft lottery chances. They are tied for the third-most losses in the league with 44 each.
Utah wraps up its lengthy stretch of home games on Monday night against the Detroit Pistons.
