The New Orleans Pelicans lost to the Utah Jazz to close out November, 101-87, in a fairly futile effort to close out their road trip and back-to-back. Davis played, 44 minutes in fact, as did Holiday, while Evans did not. Despite a great effort from Davis, the team came up short, and the game was not as close as the score indicated at certain points.

As mentioned in the pregame article, rebounding was a key. For the most part, you could track the rebounding differential and follow the basic trend of the game. To that point, the Jazz ended up winning by 14 (101-87) and won the rebound battle by the same margin (49-35). Gobert and Booker combined for 29 rebounds, and Booker had 15.

Davis’ night was killer: 36 points on 18 shots, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 3 blocks to just 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 44 minutes. This means, however, that the rest of the team was, for the most part, very poor tonight, at least with respect to shooting: 51 points on 51 shots. The Pelicans started flat, including Davis, but over time both defenses let up and some efficiency crept into the game. 39 points on 37 shots in the first half for the Pelicans, 48 points on 47 shots for the Jazz. In the second half, 48 points on 32 shots for the Pelicans, 53 points on 35 shots for the Jazz. Still, the Pelicans never really gained meaningful ground and held it.

In the end, this team just can’t handle situations that require depth and versatility while their injuries loom large. On a three-game trip out west and the second night of a back-to-back in Utah to close it, the short-handed Pelicans just can not adjust, adapt, or endure. Pretending anything else to be the case is simply a waste of mental energy.

The good news is there were no new obvious injuries, Holiday played limited minutes against the Jazz after playing limited minutes against the Clippers the night before, and Evans and Cole are set to rejoin with Pondexter likely not far behind. The 4-13 Pelicans may be getting healthy in time to give themselves a chance.

The Pelicans’ next game is against the Grizzlies in New Orleans Tuesday night at 7pm CT (UTC -5).

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