The New Orleans Pelicans have been trying all season to get everyone playing well at the same time. During the final 12 minutes Tuesday, they came as close as they have all season. Good thing, because that's exactly what was needed to overcome a pesky Utah team seeking a rare victory on the road.
New Orleans (12-12) trailed 89-78 through three quarters, but racked up 41 points in the fourth period to overtake the Jazz (6-19). It was the second-most points the Pelicans have tallied in any quarter this season. Ryan Anderson led the way by dropping in 13 fourth-quarter points, including three three-pointers. Anthony Davis and Tyreke Evans added nine points apiece, while Austin Rivers supplied eight.
The Pelicans were visibly displeased with their defensive performance for much of the first three quarters, allowing the Jazz to repeatedly get into the paint for point-blank shots. In crunch time, New Orleans clamped down, especially during an 18-5 run that turned a 99-90 deficit into a 108-104 lead with 2:38 left. Davis helped close out Utah by scoring seven straight late New Orleans points, capped by a reverse dunk that gave the hosts a 115-109 lead with 34 seconds to go.
“We just stayed with it,” Pelicans Coach Monty Williams said after his team’s 41-22 fourth quarter. “We’ve always said we’re going to keep swimming, keep fighting, stay the course, all those things.”
“I think it says a lot about this group and where we are going,” Anderson said. “Those are big games for us to win. Obviously (Utah) kind of controlled the momentum a lot of the game and we took it back from them when we needed to. We made big plays, moved the ball, got stops on defense.”
Rivers noted that at halftime the Pelicans’ most experienced player, 13-year NBA veteran John Salmons, told his teammates that Tuesday’s game was the kind that separates playoff teams from non-qualifiers. Salmons, who did not play Tuesday but is a respected voice in the locker room, gave the talk after New Orleans trailed 59-53 at intermission. Utah shot a far-too-high 58.1 percent from the field in the first half.
Utah extended its lead in the third quarter on the strength of a 33-25 advantage, but New Orleans surged at a critcal juncture, preventing the Jazz from posting their third road win of 2014-15. Utah is just 2-10 away from the Beehive State this season.
Enes Kanter scored a career-high and team-leading 29 points for Utah, which tallied a whopping 68 points in the paint. New Orleans eventually slowed the Jazz’s interior attack after the visitors had been very successful around the rim. The Pelicans won for the first time in 2014-15 when trailing after three quarters.
“We need to do that more,” said Anderson (28 points, 6-for-10 on treys) of the final-period turnaround. “I think we fought and battled back and made great plays in the end. That’s a tough team to guard because of their bigs and ability to get offensive rebounds.”
“Only thing that matters is that we won,” said Davis (31 points, 9 rebounds) after being asked if the Pelicans averted “disaster” with their late-game comeback. “Guys started playing and we picked it up. We just played defense in that fourth quarter, got a lot of easy looks in transition that kind of got us going. We just stayed with it through the whole night. We stayed the course, stayed with our game plan, and we ended up coming back. Once we got the lead, we kind of took off from there.”