Brandon Ingram scored 29 points and the host New Orleans Pelicans dominated the Utah Jazz from beginning to end to claim their fourth consecutive victory, 124-90 on Friday night.
CJ McCollum added 24 points, Willy Hernangomez scored 13, Tony Snell had 11 and Naji Marshall 10 for the Pelicans, who led by 18 points after one quarter, by 27 at halftime and by 32 at the end of the third quarter. They led by as many as 37 on their way to increasing their average margin of victory during the winning streak to 26.8 points.
The Pelicans, who set a franchise record by leading by 30 points for a third consecutive game, enjoyed their largest margin of victory this season, surpassing 30-point margins against Sacramento on Wednesday and Toronto on Feb. 14.
Donovan Mitchell scored 14, Hassan Whiteside had 13 points and 12 rebounds, Danuel House Jr. scored 11, Rudy Gobert had 10 points and 11 rebounds and Jordan Clarkson scored 10 to lead the Jazz, who saw their three-game winning streak end in the third game of a five-game road trip.
Utah turned the ball over 21 times, leading to 36 Pelicans points as New Orleans gained a split of the four-game season series. It was the Jazz’s largest margin of defeat this season, easily surpassing that of 20-point losses to Cleveland and Minnesota.
The Pelicans led 35-17 at the end of the first quarter as Ingram finished with 11 points and the team made 14 of 21 shots, including 4 of 8 3-pointers.
Devonte’ Graham’s 3-pointer started the second-quarter scoring and he made another one to push the Pelicans’ lead to 41-18.
Jose Alvarado made a steal and a layup as New Orleans took its biggest lead of the half at 58-28.
The Pelicans led by 30 once more before Utah trimmed the margin to 24, but Snell’s 3-pointer sent New Orleans into halftime with a 65-38 lead.
It was the Pelicans’ largest halftime lead and the Jazz’s largest halftime deficit of the season.
–Field Level Media
