Game On: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Utah Jazz

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Published: March 28, 2014

I don’t know whether to be confident or scared to death.

The injury-maligned Pelicans have struggled against teams with winning records all season, yet they just posted a 4 game win streak in perhaps their toughest stretch of the entire season. It has been an uncharacteristic stretch of play and their recent good fortune makes you wonder when they will come back to earth.

Enter the 23-49 Utah Jazz, who haven’t beaten a decent team since a month ago. The Jazz have won two games in March and both were against tank-tastic teams. They can’t defend and they can’t score, they’re a below-average shooting team, they’re a below-average rebounding team. The Jazz have been outscored by an average of 12 points per 100 possessions on the road.

The Pelicans just beat the defending champs, the resurgent Nets, and the red-hot Clippers. The team is playing at the highest level that it has all season. The role players (and I do mean all of them) just put together a magnificent performance against the Clippers, and Anthony Davis and Tyreke Evans have been one of the NBA’s top duos since Tyreke was moved into the starting lineup.

Everything adds up to the Pelicans coming out and beating the Jazz, but of course, this team is not beyond error. As bad as the Jazz are, this Pelicans team is not good enough to take anyone for granted.

The Jazz offense and defense have each gone down another circle of hell in March and there really isn’t much to be said. The Pelicans are on their way to becoming a good team and part of being a good team is stomping on bad opponents’ throats.. tonight is an opportunity to do just that.  I’ve enjoyed these recent wins immensely, but I’m in the mood for a good ol’ fashioned blowout. And if I have to recap a loss against the Jazz on a Friday night, heads will roll (not really).

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