The New Orleans Pelicans face a familiar opponent Thursday night, the Utah Jazz. A unique quirk of the COVID-19 impacted schedule this year the Pels stayed in Salt Lake City for one more go at one of the best teams in the NBA. With Tuesdays matchup fresh in their mind, here’s to hoping Stan Van Gundy and company can find some answers.
Biggest issue for this team? Defense. It’s bad. New Orleans ranks 29th (of 30) in defensive rating since the calendar flipped to 2021. For all the focus on the Pelicans offense (14th in the NBA over the same span) it is the defense that continues to be the problem.