The Utah Jazz have shown flashes of potential and competitiveness during its current 10-game losing streak. But the lows have outnumbered the highs heading into a showdown with the Memphis Grizzlies in Salt Lake City on Friday night.
Utah hit one of those lows in a 156-137 loss to New Orleans on Tuesday. The Jazz found themselves on the wrong end of the Pels’ multiple franchise records following a second-half defensive collapse.
New Orleans set franchise highs for total points scored in a game (156) and points scored in a quarter (50 in the third). Pelicans rookie Jeremiah Fears led the way with a franchise rookie record 40 points. The Jazz (21-59) allowed 90 points in the paint and 44 fastbreak points.
Utah led 69-61 at halftime before self-destructing in the third quarter. New Orleans used a 31-6 run to pull away — fueled by baskets from Jordan Poole, who scored 22 points in the quarter.
Kennedy Chandler and John Konchar offered a bright spot for the Jazz off the bench. Chandler totaled a career-high 31 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, while Konchar produced 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his first career triple-double.
Fan support has remained strong even as Utah staggers to the finish line on a fourth straight playoff-less season. The Jazz are hopeful it will make a positive difference in their final regular-season home game Friday.
“They’re passionate. They’re knowledgeable. They’re fair. But they want to win,” Utah coach Will Hardy said of the Jazz fans in a video posted to the Utah Jazz’s X account. “And they believe that they add to the environment, and that they make this place a hard place for opponents to play, and a great place for our team to play.”
Memphis, much like the Jazz, are trying to find positives as losses continue to pile up at the end of the season.
The Grizzlies (25-55) lost their sixth straight after falling 136-119 to Denver on Wednesday. They have won twice in their last 21 games. Memphis fell to the Nuggets after Nikola Jokic finished with 14 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his 34th triple-double of the season.
Cedric Coward matched his career high with 27 points against Denver. Coward has been a bright spot for the rebuilding Grizzlies, averaging 17.3 points on 55.6% shooting over his last four games.
“I just try to impact winning the best I can,” Coward said to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I hope people who watched our games throughout the whole year — not just recently or early in the season — can see that I’ve impacted winning in a lot of ways. I’m just trying to keep doing that.”
For the season, he is averaging 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists. That level of production has put Coward in the mix to earn NBA All-Rookie first-team honors at season’s end.
“From day one, he’s been super impressive in how he’s contributed — especially to winning,” Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “If you look at his lineups, he’s been a guy driving winning in multiple ways, defensively and offensively. I think he’s just scratched the surface of what he can be.”
Three players currently on the Memphis roster — Ja Morant, Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells — earned first-team honors in their rookie NBA seasons. Seven players have earned All-Rookie honors with the Grizzlies in five of the past seven seasons.
