Pelicans ice cold in cold weather loss at Utah

It was snowing outside.

For the New Orleans Pelicans, it was snowing inside, or so it seemed.

The Pelicans were cold as ice from start to finish. The homestanding Utah Jazz took total advantage, dominating New Orleans, 121-100.

It was a totally dominating effort by Utah and total failure by New Orleans, a real rarity this season.

The Pelicans shot 39.8 percent from the field, 14.8 percent from 3-point range and 66.7 percent from the free throw line, all awful percentages.

Utah hammered he Pelicans 59-43 on the boards and New Orleans committed 16 turnovers.

With those numbers, there was no chance at extending the 7-game win streak which came to a crashing halt.

While Brandon Ingram remained out, Herb Jones returned for the Pelicans and scored the first two points of the game.

Zion Williamson came out strong again, scoring 10 points in the first quarter and the Pelicans, despite five turnovers, had a 30-29 lead.

The second quarter was a different story.

Williamson picked up his third foul with 9:25 to play in the second quarter and the Pelicans leading 36-35.

It was a mighty struggle the rest of the quarter for New Orleans.

Utah closed the quarter on a 17-7 run to take a 52-45 halftime lead.

It could have been worse.

The Pelicans were ice cold, not scoring a point in the final 3:20 of the first half.

The last field goal for the Pelicans was at the 5:19 mark on a jumper by CJ McCollum.

The Pelicans missed their final eight field goal attempts in the quarter and finished the first half shooting poorly in all phases, making just 18 of 46 shots (39%) from the field, 1 of 12 (8%) from 3-point range and 8 of 12 (67%) from the free throw line.

McCollum had 10 points but was just 4 of 11 from the field while Trey Murphy did not score and was 0 for 4 from the field.

The third quarter was worse, with New Orleans giving up 39 points to Utah while remaining ice cold in all shooting aspects and basically, it was over with Utah taking a commanding 91-71 lead into the fourth quarter, which became an afterthought quickly.

Kira Lewis Jr. got his first action of the season, coming in with six minutes to play in the game as Willie Green cleared his bench down 107-84.

Willy Hernangomez scored nine points in six minutes, showing once again that he is always ready to answer the call in any situation.

Particularly ineffective was the performance of Trey Murphy III.

A real bright spot this season, Murphy struggled from start to finish, failing to score in 25 minutes while missing all seven field goal attempts, including a wide open dunk.

McCollum struggled to shoot it and Jose Alvarado struggled off the bench.

Struggle was the optimum word as the Pelicans struggled all night.

You cannot win them all and the win streak was going to end.

The Pelicans (18-9) need to flush this one quickly.

How will the Pelicans respond?

Despite being 18-9, the Pelicans are 0-2 against Utah and get another shot at the Jazz Thursday night at the same venue.

To change things, the Pelicans will have to change a lot about how they played Tuesday night.