The Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers are headed in utterly totally different instructions.
The visiting Jazz are on a six-game win streak whereas the Lakers are hoping to get again within the win column after shedding three straight, together with 4 out of their final 5.
Whereas the Lakers have been aggressive in opposition to the Warriors, the shut nature of that recreation felt extra indicative of the present state of the Warriors, who have been lacking Draymond Inexperienced and seem drained headed into the NBA All-Star break after shedding three of their final 4 video games.
Whereas the Warriors have seen their top-ranked defensive score (105.6) slip to twenty third the previous couple of weeks (116.9), the Jazz have improved during the last two weeks and are third in defensive score, permitting simply 102.6 factors per 100 possessions.
The Jazz have welcomed the return of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, and are scoring 124.6 factors per 100 possessions, first amongst NBA groups over this span.
The Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, however this merely isn’t a superb group, and the Jazz have benefits everywhere in the flooring — notably within the half courtroom, the place they've the league’s top-ranked offensive score (100.8) and are dealing with a Lakers protection that’s seventeenth (95.3).
The Lakers are twenty fourth in opponent field-goal share on the rim (66.2 p.c), an space the place the Jazz are second in capturing (70 p.c). The Lakers may also battle to maintain up with the Jazz’s 3-point assault and may have a significant math drawback right here on condition that the Jazz are capturing a league-leading 43.4 p.c of their area objectives from behind the arc and making the sixth-most (35.2 p.c).
The Lakers are simply Twenty second in offensive score (109.7), and lineups with James and Davis are scoring solely 108.1 factors per 100 possessions, which is within the Twenty second-percentile amongst two-man lineups this season. Making issues worse, the Lakers are being outscored by 2.7 factors per 100 possessions with their two stars on the ground.
My mannequin makes this recreation Jazz -6.5, so at -3.5, this line is brief. I’ll lay the factors with the Jazz by taking them to cowl the complete recreation and first half as they need to head into the All-Star break flying excessive with their seventh straight win.
The decide: Jazz -3.5
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