Game Threads

New Orleans Pelicans at Utah Jazz Game Thread

By David Fisher@Fish_TBW Dec 16, 2015, 7:00pm CST

The New Orleans Pelicans are winning just one of every four games. Ryan Anderson lingers in trade rumors. The good news is almost everyone is healthy and Quincy Pondexter is still tweeting out cryptic messages that give me hope. The bad news is almost everything else.

The Pelicans are fielding the worst defense in franchise history by a significant margin. The offense was better when Anthony Davis was a rookie and Greivis Vasquez was the starting point guard. Dell Demps is probably going to try to save his job by executing a short-sighted trade in the next two months. There is no reason to trust Mickey Loomis to stop him.

Tonight they face the Utah Jazz, minus one Rudy Gobert. The Jazz current sit in 9th in the Western Conference at an unimpressive 10-13. Utah will do everything in their power to slow down the Pels attack, and even without a rim protector like Gobert should be relatively successful.

Last time these teams met Anthony Davis did all the lifting himself in a losing effort. I can't see why a Pelican center sees the court tonight with Gobert sidelined so expect Ajinca and Asik to play heavy minutes because why not.

Soon enough
— Quincy Pondexter (@QuincyPondexter) December 14, 2015

Be sure to check out Zachary's game preview before tip off!

Projected Starters
2015-16 NBA Regular Season
	at
6-18 (1-12 Away)		10-13 (5-5 Home)
December 16, 2015, 8:00 PM Central
Energy Solutions Arena - Salt Lake City, UT
Fox Sports New Orleans
Charter - 810, Cox - 1038, DirecTV - 676, U-Verse - 1757
WRNO 99.5 FM
Tyreke Evans	PG	Raul Neto
Eric Gordon	SG	Rodney Hood
Alonzo Gee	SF	Gordon Hayward
Anthony Davis	PF	Trey Lyles
Alexis Ajinca	C	Derrick Favors
Advanced Stats (2015-16) via NBA Stats
99.71 (9th)	Pace	94.22 (30th)
101.3 (17th)	ORtg	101.6 (16th)
108.4 (30th)	DRtg	103.0 (17th)
-7.2 (28th)	Net Rating	-1.4 (18th)