For the second night in the row, the New Orleans Hornets trailed by double-digits in the 4th quarter, rallied to cut the deficit to 1, but came up short in the end, falling to the Utah Jazz 104-99.

Eric Gordon sat out to rest his knee, which is pretty much protocol this season when the Hornets play the back end of a back-to-back. Greivis Vasquez registered his 18th double-double of the season (17 points, 13 assists), but continues to struggle with his outside shot. He finished Wednesday's loss 8-21 from the field, and hasn't hit a 3-pointer in 4 games. Robin Lopez (15 points), Anthony Davis (14 points), and Jason Smith (10 points) did a decent job in the paint, but not as much as Utah. The Jazz won the points in the paint battle 48-40.

Ryan Anderson scored 16 off the bench, but fouled out late in the 4th. Speaking of fouls, the Jazz attempted 46 free throws., while the Hornets only attempted 28, missing 9.

The second quarter proved to be the back breaker for the second game in a row, as Utah outscored New Orleans 32-18. Defensive execution was the biggest reason why.

"You can score and get assists all you want, but when you're not defending it doesn't matter," explained head coach Monty Williams. "We're just not having the defensive coverages we need consistently. We did a decent jobs in three quarters, but we gave up a big second quarter."

New Orleans will get play the 4th game of their 5 game road trip on Friday night in Denver. Tip-off versus the Nuggets is set for 8:00.

More From 103.3 The GOAT