New Orleans Pelicans vs. Utah Jazz Preview: The Battle Continues

The eight seeding games are on the horizon. Let’s dive into how the New Orleans Pelicans stack up with their first opponent, the Utah Jazz.

If we’ve learned anything from their previous three matchups, game 1 between the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz is going to be a battle.

On July 30th, we will finally be able to watch live NBA games again, with the Pelicans squaring off against the Jazz in the first game of the eight “Seeding Games” that every team will play to determine who will make the playoffs.

At 6:30 Eastern on TNT we will be treated to our first game in 139 days since the league and country shut down after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 (he should win Defensive Player of the Year for shutting down a whole league).

This is one of the harder games on the Pelicans’ schedule and it’ll be nice to see how they respond if they get punched in the mouth early.

So far five of the Pel’s eight games are scheduled to be shown on either TNT, ESPN, or ABC with another to be broadcast on NBATV; that’s tied for the second-most (the Clippers and Bucks also have five) of any team in the restart, behind only the Lakers with seven.

The New Orleans Pelicans are favored over the 4th Seed Utah Jazz

While there’s still a lot of time until this game starts, the Pelicans are favored according to The Action Network. Their consensus odds have New Orleans at -2.5 (the Pels opened at -1.5) with most money lines around -100.

One of the factors in those lines is that casinos need to offer odds that will entice people to bet, not necessarily what the “true odds” are. But a big part of the Jazz being underdogs is that they will be without Bojan Bogdanovic for the remainder of this season.

I’m expecting every team to be shaky offensively in the early going of the restart, without playing an NBA game for nearly five months everyone will need to get used to their teammates again.

These two teams have played in some very close games already this year with all three decided by single digits, even the preseason meeting was decided by just one point. In the three regular-season games the total margin of victory was just 16 points (5.33 per game) and two of those games came down to plays that could have decided the game at the buzzer.

Worth noting is how badly Brandon Ingram has torched the Jazz this year. He’s scored over 30 points in every game against them and had his career-high of 49 points just two months before the season hit pause. He’s averaged 39 points in the three games against Utah this year while shooting 52% from the field.

Let’s take a look at the previous three games to see why these teams are so evenly matched.