Pelicans explode past Jazz
In a high‑scoring NBA night, the Pelicans put up 156 points to beat the Jazz 156–137, a game that included Jeremiah Fears, 19, becoming the youngest guard with a 40‑point outing — a rare offensive outburst that reshapes how teams evaluate young scorers. (Social recaps highlighted the 156–137 score and noted Jeremiah Fears, 19, as the youngest guard with 40 points in that game.) (x.com)
New Orleans scored 156 points on Tuesday night, gave up 137, and still made the game feel lopsided because the third quarter alone was 50-27. Utah led 69-61 at halftime, then got buried under the highest-scoring quarter in Pelicans franchise history. (espn.com, nba.com) The player everyone left talking about was Jeremiah Fears, a 19-year-old rookie guard who scored 40 points on 17-for-29 shooting, with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals in 38 minutes. That line made him the first Pelicans rookie to hit 40 and set a new franchise rookie single-game scoring record. (espn.com, nba.com) Fears was not piling up empty points in garbage time. New Orleans had lost eight straight before this game, and his scoring came while the Pelicans were flipping an eight-point halftime deficit into a 19-point win. (espn.com, newsday.com) The age piece is what turns a hot night into a bigger story. Yahoo Sports reported that Fears became the youngest guard in National Basketball Association history to score 40 points, which puts him in a category teams usually associate with top-end stars, not teenagers on a 26-win team. (sports.yahoo.com) This did not happen in isolation. HoopsHype noted that only five rookies in the last 10 seasons have posted a 40-point, 5-rebound, 5-assist game: Fears, Cooper Flagg, Victor Wembanyama, Trae Young, and Anthony Edwards. (sports.yahoo.com) The game also showed why the final score got so absurd. Jordan Poole scored 34 points and poured in 22 of them in the third quarter, Jordan Hawkins added a season-high 25, Micah Peavy scored a career-high 20, and Derik Queen finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. (nba.com, gmanetwork.com) That kind of box score says as much about roster timing as it does about one night. New Orleans used the 2025 draft to add Fears, Peavy, and Queen, and all three rookies hit career markers in the same game, which is the sort of late-season snapshot front offices study when deciding who gets the ball next year. (nba.com, newson6.com) Utah helped create the pace, but New Orleans still had to cash every opening. The Jazz lost their 10th straight, the Pelicans won their eighth straight against Utah, and the game turned into a track meet where New Orleans kept finishing every fast break and half-court action one beat cleaner. (espn.com, nola.com) A 156-point night in April can look like noise if you stop at the score. A 19-year-old guard reaching 40 with 5 rebounds and 6 assists, while setting a franchise rookie record and joining a list with Edwards, Young, Wembanyama, and Flagg, is the part scouts and executives will keep replaying after the season ends. (sports.yahoo.com, sports.yahoo.com)
