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NEW ORLEANS — Recently, Donovan Mitchell has been offering Rudy Gobert a suggestion: instead of going around defenders as he rolls to the paint, just go through them.
“I’ve been yelling at big fella to dunk on someone for about week,” Mitchell said.
Gobert did just that on Wednesday.
With under four minutes to play and New Orleans mounting yet another comeback attempt, Gobert took a bounce pass from Joe Ingles as he rolled to the hoop. The Jazz center then raised the ball high and delivered a towering dunk over Julius Randle.
“He (Mitchell) wants me to dunk on everyone,” Gobert said.
For good reason.
That play seemed to zap the fight right out of the Pelicans. They had cut a 17-point fourth-quarter Utah lead to six points, but after the Gobert dunk, they failed to score for over two minutes, allowing the Jazz to pull away for a 114-104 victory.
The Jazz improved to 37-27 on the season with the win.
“I just tried to go through him,” Gobert said. “I got fouled, too. I just threw the ball in. Sometimes, I just gotta stop overthinking and jump over someone and go through someone. … That’s kind of what we needed just for the momentum. To show that we were here to win.”
And after what happened against the same team two days earlier, when the Jazz surrendered a 17-point lead in a loss to New Orleans, that was something the Jazz felt like they needed to show — especially since there were plenty of times during Wednesday’s game that you wouldn’t have been blamed for thinking you had seen this all before.
In the second half, the Jazz lead was 18 — then it was down to four. Utah built it back up to 17 — and then New Orleans cut down to six with 4:20 remaining.
But, unlike on Monday, the Jazz didn’t allow the Pelicans to come all the way back. They answered each big New Orleans run with one of their own and never allowed the game to get within a single possession in the second half — despite giving up multiple double-digit leads.
“We just understood that we had to come out and punch right back,” Mitchell said. “It happened to us last game and we kind of altered. … it was fresh in our minds and we knew what we had to do to pick our intensity up.”
That was seen in Gobert’s massive slam and it was seen in the Jazz’s defense that held New Orleans scoreless for over three minutes during crunch time.
“We did a much better job guarding, communicating,” Gobert said. “Third quarter we turned the ball over a lot and they got back in the game, but overall, I think we had a great defensive game.”
The Pelicans got back into the game with an 18-4 run in the third quarter, cutting what was an 18-point Utah lead to just four. But the Jazz had an answer and his name was Derrick Favors.
Favors led the Jazz on a 13-2 push to regain a double-digit lead. During that run, Favors scored eight of Utah’s 13 points.
“Faves — he’s the Hulk,” Mitchell said. “That’s his new nickname.”
And his Hulk-like tendencies were on display when he bullied his way to the hoops and dunked on two New Orleans players, including Anthony Davis.
Favors led the Jazz with a season-high 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting. Gobert had 22 points and 13 rebounds and Mitchell added 22 points and seven rebounds. Ingles and Ricky Rubio both finished with 10 assists in the win.
Milestones: Gobert passed John Stockton for fourth-most rebounds in franchise history. With 13 rebounds on Wednesday, Gobert now has 4,058 career rebounds. Mitchell scored his 3,000th point hitting the mark sooner than any other player in Jazz history. Mitchell played his 139th game on Wednesday.
