Pelicans light it up

The New Orleans Pelicans scored 156 points on Tuesday, April 7, and that number barely looks real until you see the rest of the box score: 61 made field goals, 58 percent shooting, 14 made three-pointers, and 90 points in the paint in a 156–137 win over the Utah Jazz at Smoothie King Center. (espn.com; nba.com) It was not just a hot shooting night. It was a sprint from start to finish, with both teams combining for 293 points, 114 made field goals, 70 rebounds, and 70 assists, which is the kind of game that feels less like half-court basketball and more like a track meet with layup lines at both ends. (espn.com) New Orleans did most of its damage where defenses usually try hardest to hold the line. The Pelicans scored 90 points in the paint, while Utah scored 78 of its own there, which tells you this game was decided less by one team bombing away from deep and more by one team getting to the rim over and over until the scoreboard broke open. (espn.com; espn.com) The turning point was the third quarter. New Orleans dropped 50 points in that period alone, turning a 69–61 halftime edge into a runaway and setting a franchise record for points in a quarter. Jordan Poole scored 22 of his 34 points in those 12 minutes, which is how a close game becomes a 29-point lead before the fourth quarter settles in. (espn.com; espn.com) Jeremiah Fears was the headline inside the headline. The rookie guard scored 40 points, shooting 17 for 29 from the field, and ESPN’s recap says that total set a Pelicans rookie record for points in a game, passing the old mark of 37 by Marcus Thornton in 2010. (espn.com) Poole’s night mattered for a different reason. He hit 7 of 16 from three-point range in only his seventh start of the season, and his scoring burst gave New Orleans a second engine next to Fears, which made Utah choose between helping at the rim or staying attached to shooters and failing at both. (espn.com) The supporting cast kept piling on. Jordan Hawkins scored 25 points, rookie Micah Peavy added a season-high 20, and rookie Derek Queen finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, so this was not one star dragging a team across the line. It was wave after wave of clean looks, cuts, transition chances, and finishes at the basket. (espn.com) What makes the score even stranger is who did not play. New Orleans set a franchise record for points in a game despite sitting or missing Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy the Third, Dejounte Murray, Herbert Jones, and Saddiq Bey, with ESPN noting that Williamson, Jones, and Bey were active but did not leave the bench in the Pelicans’ final home game of another non-playoff season. (espn.com) Utah was not awful on offense. The Jazz shot 53 for 104 overall, scored 137 points, handed out 38 assists, and got 31 points from Kennedy Chandler, 26 from Cody Williams, and a triple-double from John Konchar with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. In most games, that is enough to keep things tense into the final minutes. Here, it was background noise. (espn.com; espn.com) The problem for Utah was that every decent possession got answered by something louder. The Jazz shot 51 percent and still lost by 19 because New Orleans was better almost everywhere that compounds over 48 minutes: field-goal percentage, three-point percentage, rebounding, steals, blocks, and especially fast-break points, where the Pelicans led 44 to 22. (espn.com) There is also a late-season context to this. The win lifted New Orleans to 26–54 and snapped an eight-game losing streak, while Utah fell to 21–59 and dropped its 10th straight, according to ESPN’s recap. These are not playoff teams finding another gear in April. These are lottery teams showing what happens when one young roster gets downhill and the other cannot put out a single fire. (espn.com) That is why the highlights tell the story so quickly. You do not need a full replay to spot the pattern when one team scores 50 in a quarter and 90 in the paint. The Pelicans kept getting the first step, the next pass, and the last touch at the rim, and the Jazz kept scoring just enough to make the final total look competitive long after the game itself had stopped being one. (espn.com; espn.com)