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Game Preview: Utah Jazz at New Orleans Pelicans, Anthony Davis is a monster, but he's not the only one you have to worry about

Game #73: Utah Jazz (23-49) @ New Orleans Pelicans (31-40)
Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
March 28, 2014 -- 6:00 pm MT
TV: ROOT Sports -- RADIO: 1280 am / 97.5 fm

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sport
March Game Streams -- The Bird Writes -- Jazz vs Pelicans coverage

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Okay guys. The New Orleans Pelicans are two things right now. They are disproportionately injured, and they are also on a four game winning streak with wins against the Atlanta Hawks (on the road), Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, and Los Angeles Clippers. What the heck. They are missing two of their three best bigmen right now (stretch four Ryan Anderson, and stretch five Jason Smith -- both out for the season). They are also missing a lot of their ball handlers (Jrue Holiday out for the season, Eric Gordon questionable, Brian Roberts questionable, and Austin Rivers probable).

Oh, and they are on a four game win streak against four playoff teams.

How are they doing it? Well, a huge part is Anthony Davis. Obviously. But lately we've seen Tyreke Evans shoulder a larger load. We know all about Tyreke, as in his 15 games against the Utah Jazz he averages 21.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, and 5.2 apg. He has beaten us all by himself before. He's gone for 20 or more in 8 of the last 11 games. Two games ago he finished with a 33 / 10 / 7 / 3 line, while getting to the rim (and line) with impunity.

Everyone is worried about Davis, duh. He's an All-Star and he is killing it right now. But over the last little while Evans has been the lord of death.

Player Pos G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG PER BARPS FG% 3PT% FT%
1 Anthony Davis 4 5 62 36.3 21.7 10.5 1.6 1.4 2.9 27.0 38.1 52.4% 25.0% 79.0%
2 Eric Gordon 2 1 64 32.1 15.4 2.6 3.3 1.2 0.2 15.0 22.7 43.6% 39.1% 78.5%
3 Tyreke Evans 2 1 62 27.6 13.9 4.7 4.8 1.2 0.3 18.2 24.9 43.1% 21.8% 77.9%
4 Al-Farouq Aminu 3 69 25.9 7.4 6.3 1.5 1.1 0.5 13.6 16.8 48.2% 27.9% 65.2%
5 Brian Roberts 1 64 23.4 9.5 1.9 3.3 0.6 0.1 13.8 15.4 43.2% 37.3% 94.9%
6 Greg Stiemsma 5 47 17.9 2.6 4.1 0.7 0.5 1.0 9.7 8.9 61.1% 56.5%
7 Austin Rivers 1 2 58 17.6 6.9 1.4 1.9 0.6 0.1 10.9 10.9 40.1% 32.9% 65.4%
8 Anthony Morrow 2 3 65 16.9 7.2 1.7 0.6 0.4 0.2 12.6 10.1 44.0% 43.9% 79.3%
9 Alexis Ajinca 5 46 16.2 5.2 4.9 0.7 0.3 0.8 13.9 11.9 55.8% 80.4%
10 Darius Miller 3 34 12.3 3.1 1.0 0.6 0.3 0.1 7.7 5.1 43.5% 32.6% 76.2%
x Ryan Anderson 4 22 36.1 19.8 6.5 0.8 0.5 0.3 19.0 27.9 43.8% 40.9% 95.2%
x Jrue Holiday 1 34 33.6 14.3 4.2 7.9 1.6 0.4 17.3 28.4 44.7% 39.0% 81.0%
x Jason Smith 5 5 31 26.8 9.7 5.8 0.9 0.4 0.9 12.5 17.7 46.5% 78.0%

For the season the Pelicans aren't amazing. They are 12th in Offensive RTG and 27th in Defensive RTG. They play at the 22nd "fastest" pace, and they score 100.1 ppg while giving up 102.2 ppg. They are playing startlingly well right now, and have won 7 of their last 10 games. Compounding things are the fact that they are 19-17 at home. They're not great. But they are playing great right now.

The Jazz, are, well, you know how we are. We're going to be without Alec Burks again tonight. That sucks.

Player Pos G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG PER BARPS FG% 3PT% FT%
1 Gordon Hayward 2 3 67 36.3 16.0 5.3 5.2 1.5 0.6 16.3 28.6 41.5% 31.1% 81.3%
2 Trey Burke 1 60 31.6 12.8 3.0 5.4 0.6 0.1 12.7 21.9 38.1% 33.9% 88.4%
3 Derrick Favors 5 4 63 30.1 12.9 8.7 1.2 1.0 1.4 18.5 25.2 51.7% 67.1%
4 Richard Jefferson 3 72 27.1 10.3 2.8 1.6 0.7 0.2 12.2 15.6 45.0% 43.0% 76.7%
5 Enes Kanter 4 5 71 26.4 12.1 7.0 0.9 0.4 0.5 15.4 20.9 48.9% 73.0%
6 Marvin Williams 3 4 60 25.6 9.4 5.2 1.2 0.8 0.5 14.2 17.1 43.8% 36.2% 77.6%
7 Jeremy Evans 4 56 18.1 6.2 4.7 0.6 0.6 0.7 16.6 12.8 53.2% 69.4%
8 Diante Garrett 1 2 61 15.0 3.7 1.4 1.8 0.6 0.1 8.0 7.6 40.3% 40.0% 83.3%
9 John Lucas III 1 2 41 14.3 3.8 1.0 1.0 0.3 0.0 5.1 6.1 32.3% 28.9% 62.5%
10 Brandon Rush 2 3 37 11.1 2.1 1.1 0.6 0.1 0.2 4.4 4.1 34.1% 34.8% 60.0%
x Alec Burks 2 1 69 27.7 13.8 3.3 2.7 0.9 0.2 15.8 20.9 44.8% 34.4% 74.2%
x Andris Biedrins 5 6 7.5 0.5 2.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.3 1.0% 16.7%

What doesn't suck is that we're probably going to lose tonight -- provided that EG is playing.