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The NBA officially resumed the 2019-20 regular season on Thursday night with a pair of thrilling Western Conference matchups. First on the slate was the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans — two teams vying for playoff positioning.
The Jazz pulled out a 106-104 victory after trailing by as much as 16 earlier in the game. Brandon Ingram had a chance to rescue the Pelicans at the buzzer, but his potential game-winning 3-pointer rimmed out.
The near-miss capped off an eventful night, which began with both teams kneeling during the national anthem. In this piece, we'll take a look at a few takeaways from what happened in the game.
Zion Williamson returns
Williamson missed roughly two weeks of practice after leaving the team for a family medical issue on July 16. The No. 1 overall pick was cleared to play against the Pelicans, however, though his minutes were a bit restricted because the team was worried about playing him too much without enough ramp-up time.
He clocked out for good with just over seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and watched the thrilling finish from the sidelines. The Duke product racked up 13 points in just over 15 minutes, including a couple of nice alley-oops.
The comeback
New Orleans led for much of Thursday night's game. In fact, the Pelicans led by as many as 16 points late in the second quarter, and it looked like they were going to run away with the game as the Jazz struggled to generate offense.
However, the Jazz began to chip away in the second half, and an 11-1 run in the fourth quarter gave them a three-point lead with just under four minutes to play. Utah was able to attack New Orleans over and over again in the paint, and the young Pelicans team faded offensively down the stretch, especially with no Zion on the floor.
With the season being shortened, blowing this big lead and losing comes as a setback for the Pelicans in the race for the playoffs. New Orleans is now 11th in the Western Conference, four games behind the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies and half a game behind the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings.
Jordan Clarkson, who was traded to the Jazz in December of 2019, played a big role in the rally. Players around the league know that JC can get hot at the drop of a hat. Thursday night was no different.
More on Clarkson in a bit …
Business as usual
Earlier this year, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert became the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the NBA, which prompted the league's decision to suspend the regular season. There may have been some level of awkwardness between the two because of this at one time, but they certainly played well together on Thursday night.
Mitchell started a bit slow, but finished with 20 points, five assists and five rebounds in 36 minutes of action. The young guard made a number of key plays late in the game, both in terms of scoring and playmaking.
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Gobert, on the other hand, had 14 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. The Stifle Tower scored the first points of the restart and also calmly knocked down a pair of free throws with seven seconds remaining to earn the victory:
“They certainly had some synergy on the court,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said of Mitchell and Gobert following Thursday night's game, via ESPN. “To see them connected like that was really good. We've moved on from all that stuff (in March). We've been here practicing and working. We've talked about using this entire experience to get better and I think those two guys have done that, too.”
📹| @rudygobert27 with the first & last points of the NBA return ⤵️
14p | 12r | 3b | 80% ft pic.twitter.com/Dj8pwRWU60
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) July 31, 2020
Role players shine
Utah got a big lift from Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley. With Bojan Bogdanovic sidelined due to a wrist ailment, his teammates had a bigger load to haul.
They answered the call.
Clarkson actually led the Jazz in scoring with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Conley, meanwhile, finished with 20 points and four assists. As a nice side note, Conley only committed two turnovers while sinking seven of his 16 shots from the field (2-of-7 from downtown).
This was especially sweet for Conley, who really struggled for much of the season before the shutdown. Meanwhile, Clarkson was excited to contribute to the comeback victory:
https://twitter.com/JordanClarksons/status/1289030087975763968?s=20
📹| @Jordanclarksons led us in scoring off the bench ⤵️
23p | 5r | 3a | 2s pic.twitter.com/L5iHNFhzYX
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) July 31, 2020
The Jazz will look to keep their momentum rolling on Saturday, when they'll face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tip-off inside the Orlando bubble is set for 3:30 p.m. ET, with ESPN having live broadcast coverage.
The Pelicans will face the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. This game will also be on ESPN.
