He is his team’s ninth-leading scorer, averaging 8.0 points per game, yet to hear New Orleans Pelicans players talk about Derrick Favors is to understand that the center’s contributions go far beyond the box score. Favors’ return to a significant minute allotment coincided neatly with a 3-1 road trip for New Orleans, which had gone just 2-12 in away games prior to that. The Pelicans actually are in the midst of one of their lowest-scoring stretches of the 2019-20 season, averaging only 105.8 points and committing 16.0 turnovers per game on the trip, but they still beat Minnesota, Portland and Denver.

As was the case throughout the road trip, New Orleans was not overpowering offensively on Christmas against the Nuggets, yet prevailed by limiting the hosts on the scoreboard. The Pelicans had not held any opponent under 100 points through their first 27 games, yet did so twice over the four road games – and that doesn’t include Denver scoring exactly 100. Favors has been prominent in that defensive improvement, including forcing All-Star center Nikola Jokic into an 8/20 shooting game.

“I feel like to the eye, you can’t really see how much of an impact he has,” guard Jrue Holiday said of Favors. “But for him to be able to guard Jokic and hold him to what he held him, that dude (Jokic) over there is good. We ask (Favors) to do a lot, but he’s doing it.”

“D Fave has been huge for us,” guard Josh Hart said. “Amazing for us. Protecting the rim, protecting the paint. Playing good defense on other teams’ bigs. It’s good to have him out there healthy and be able to run with us.”

Although scoring may not be job No. 1 for Favors – he tallied eight points at Denver – he actually made several other contributions that did appear on the stat sheet Wednesday, including dishing out a career-high eight assists. Favors has been a consistent rebounder as well, grabbing double-digit boards in all four games of the trip. As a result, New Orleans has gone from frequently beaten on the backboards to holding the upper hand recently. The Pelicans are sixth in rebounding percentage since Dec. 18; prior to that, they were 21st. Defensively, New Orleans is No. 1 in the NBA in efficiency during that timeframe, after ranking 28th through 27 games.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not looked at to score 20 a game,” Favors said. “I can just do all the other stuff – rebound, defend, make plays. That’s what I’m focused on.”

New Orleans has greatly benefited from the 28-year-old’s understanding of what his team needs most from him, resulting in the Pelicans’ most encouraging stretch of ’19-20 – occurring on the heels of a frustrating, 13-game losing streak. Favors sat out all but three of those defeats, but his return has helped steady New Orleans (9-23).

“We’ve still got a lot to improve on, but I think it’s coming together now,” Favors said after the Denver win. “Guys are getting more comfortable communicating on the defensive end and really believing in the help (defense) behind them.

”We feel really good about (a 3-1 trip). To come on this road trip and play some good teams – lose one game – that’s showing that we are improving a lot. It gives the guys in this (locker) room a lot of confidence, as far as learning how to win.”