Jazz at Pelicans
New Orleans All-Star Anthony Davis is questionable for Monday’s home game against the Utah Jazz after avoiding serious injury in a fall. The Pelicans announced Sunday that Davis sprained his right shoulder after landing on it during Saturday’s 107-72 loss to the Chicago Bulls. Davis fell awkwardly after going up for an alley-oop pass and briefly caught himself with one hand on the rim before tumbling to the court.
The Pelicans had won seven of nine games before being shelled by the Bulls and will look to restore order against the Jazz, who they have defeated twice this season. Utah posted a 102-90 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday for only its second win in seven games. Gordon Hayward continued his recent scoring tear with 30 points against the Kings and he has scored 24 or more points in seven of the last nine games.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), FSN New Orleans
ABOUT THE JAZZ (18-33): Hayward looks like a man wanting to live up to the four-year, $63 million contract he landed in the offseason, and he is averaging 23 points over the nine-game run. “There’s times he makes it look easy because he doesn’t look like he’s (giving his all) but he’s competing,” Utah coach Quin Snyder told reporters. “He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now.” Enes Kanter remains an iffy proposition and has two double-doubles over the past three games with a six-point, six-rebound effort against Phoenix tucked in between.
ABOUT THE PELICANS (27-24): New Orleans hopes to have Davis on the floor as he is averaging 37 points and 12.5 rebounds in the Pelicans’ two wins over Utah this season. The effort dropped significantly after he exited against the Bulls and the 35-point defeat was found to be unacceptable to Tyreke Evans. “We just didn’t bring it, you can’t give in to being tired – it’s the NBA,” Evans told reporters. “(Chicago) was just doing whatever they wanted, running, cutting backdoor. We stopped making shots.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Pelicans have won four of the past five meetings.
2. Utah C Derrick Favors has posted back-to-back 20-point outings.
3. New Orleans SG Eric Gordon was 1-of-10 for three points against Chicago and is 7-of-31 shooting over the past three games.