NBA: Utah Jazz vs. Golden State Warriors Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Utah Jazz will have one very interesting road trip on Sunday night, facing the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco. The league-leaders had a few slips before the All-Star break, which came very handy for them to recharge the batteries and regroup. On the other side, the Warriors are still struggling to find consistency, and so far they have been posting some excellent matches, but also, some terrible as well. At the moment, they are in problems losing games pretty easily and allowing a high number of points. 

Preview

Utah Jazz (28-9, -260) had three losses in four matches that preceded the All-Star, which is why they now have to start the second part of the season with multiple victories. The schedule is pretty nasty because the Jazzers have five straight road matches, the first in San Francisco and four others through the Eastern Conference. 

Quin Snyder’s boys beat Houston 114-99 on Friday, with Donovan Mitchel once again being the top scorer of his unit with 28 points, also recording 8 assists and seven boards. Mike Conley scored 20 buckets, and Rudy Gobert 15 with 13 boards and fantastic 6 blocks. 

Jordan Clarkson added 15, too, the same as Bojan Bogdanovic. The Jazz didn’t have some crazy numbers, but their solid defense was the key to beating the sorry Rockets, who shot 36.9% from the field and just 20.9% for three, nine out of 43 shots.

Golden State Warriors (19-19, +210) have four straight losses, and in just one of them, the difference was under 20 buckets. What is also problematic is the fact that the Dub Nation allowed 117 or more points in three events during that time. Even though they have players like Draymond Green, Kelly Oubre Jr, or Andrew Wiggins, this crew’s defensive productivity is awful. 

Against the Clippers, they would have a meltdown in the middle quarters once they scored 42 but allowed 76 points. GSW made just nine threes in 36 attempts, one of the worst performances since the season began. 

Steph Curry was unrecognizable with just 14 points and one of eight from the field, along with four boards and three assists in 27 minutes. Wiggins had a team-high 15 points but shot 5-for-12. The second pick from this year’s draft, James Wiseman had 14 points in 12 minutes, missing just one shot from the field. 

Head to Head 

The Jazz was routine at home against the Warriors late in January, once they defeated the Dub Nation 127-108. Mitchell had 23 points, Conley 17, and Rudy Gobert 11 with 14 boards. Steph Curry scored 24 for the Warriors. Utah scored 20 threes in 50 shots. 

Prediction

The spread on the Jazz is -7.5, and in our opinion, it is worth risking. The Warriors are in the worst possible shape since the beginning of the season, and Utah will take advantage of that. GSW’s defense is terrible, which is another big reason we want to try with the Jazz covering the spread. As you saw this year, Snyder developed arguably the most lethal and diverse attack in the league, and we strongly believe that mediocre Warriors won’t present any challenge for Mitchell and the boys. 

Pick: Utah -7.5