National Basketball Association

New Orleans Pelicans Tyreke Evans Out Tonight vs Utah Jazz

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:07 a.m. ET

Fansided, Rick Stone/FanSided via Pelican Debrief

New Orleans Pelicans’ guard Tyreke Evans will not play in tonight’s contest versus the Utah Jazz, due to a left ankle sprain.

The New Orleans Pelicans will be without one of their key bench players for tonight’s battle with the Jazz.

Backup point guard Tyreke Evans will not play in tonight’s contest, due to a left ankle sprain.

The Pelicans will miss Tyreke’s scoring contribution greatly. Evans has scored nine points and fifteen points in two full games of play in the past week. In New Orleans’ game Monday, Tyreke suffered the ankle sprain, leaving the game after eight minutes of play. He did not return to the contest.

Evans is averaging over nine points a game so far this year, along with 3.6 assists per contest. Tyreke has had plenty of issues with injuries this season, missing 29 games in the current campaign. This will be the second game he has missed in the past two weeks, after not playing in the Pelicans’ game versus the Toronto Raptors January 31st.

Once again, New Orleans will likely give a minutes boost to Tim Frazier in tonight’s game. Tim played 12 minutes in the game against Toronto, where he put up two points and two assists on 1-3 shooting from the field. With the Pelicans down a key floor general, that role will go to Frazier.

Tim will likely battle a tough opponent in Dante Exum. Dante is the backup point to Utah, but is more of an offensive weapon instead of set-up man. Exum is averaging 5.9 points and 1.6 assists per game. His 6’6″ stature will make defense a tough task for Tim Frazier. Yet with the Pelicans strategy of switching, he will be tasked with guarding a Jazz team that feasts on their tall stature at every position.

In order to get a huge win tonight, the New Orleans Pelicans will need Frazier to step up big time. Utah is a very difficult opponent, that has shown vast improvements in this season. For New Orleans to stand a chance at winning this game, they will need Tim to bring his A-Game. If Frazier can be a difference maker, the Pelicans could find themselves a win that has the potential to be a turning point, for what has been a greatly disappointing campaign so far.