BOSTON vs UTAH
When: 2/9/2021 10:00 PM
Where: Salt Lake City

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: UTAH , BOSTON

Oddsmakers currently have Utah listed as 5.5 point favorites versus Boston, while the game’s total is sitting at 220.5.

The Jazz are 9-2 on their home court. Utah is the league leader with 38 defensive rebounds per game led by Rudy Gobert averaging 9.9.

The Celtics are 7-7 on the road. Boston ranks ninth in the Eastern Conference scoring 45.8 points per game in the paint led by Jaylen Brown averaging 11.2.

The teams face off Tuesday for the first time this season.

TOP PERFORMERS:

Gobert is averaging 13.3 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks for the Jazz. Joe Ingles is averaging 9.7 points and 5.9 assists over the last 10 games for Utah.

Tatum leads the Celtics averaging 3.2 made 3-pointers while scoring 27 points per game and shooting 41.9% from beyond the arc. Kemba Walker is averaging 3.2 assists and 13.4 points over the last 10 games for Boston.

LAST 10 GAMES:

Jazz: 9-1, averaging 118.7 points, 49.4 rebounds, 24.4 assists, 6.1 steals and 5.6 blocks per game while shooting 46.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 106.5 points on 44.2% shooting.

Celtics: 4-6, averaging 111.2 points, 42.8 rebounds, 22.2 assists, 8.2 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 46.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 108.9 points on 48.1% shooting.

INJURIES:

Jazz: Juwan Morgan: day to day (illness), Elijah Hughes: day to day (ankle), Mike Conley: day to day (hamstring).

Celtics: Romeo Langford: out (right wrist), Marcus Smart: out (calf), Jaylen Brown: day to day (knee).

BOTTOM LINE: Jayson Tatum leads Boston into a matchup with Utah. He currently ranks ninth in the NBA scoring 27.0 points per game.

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UTAH vs ATLANTA
When: 2/4/2021 7:35 PM
Where:

TV: 7:35 PM
LINE: 5.5
PREDICTION: ATLANTA , UTAH

Oddsmakers currently have the ATLANTA listed as 5.5 point favorites versus the UTAH, while the game’s total is sitting at 222.5.

The red-hot Utah Jazz, winners of 12 of their past 13 games, begin a three-game road trip on Thursday against the suddenly struggling Atlanta Hawks.

The recent success propelled the Jazz into a share of first place in the NBA’s Western Conference with the best winning percentage in the league.

The Hawks have lost two straight games and saw their record dip below .500 following a 122-116 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.

Atlanta will be playing its fourth back-to-back this season; the Hawks have two splits and were swept once. The Hawks are hopeful of getting second-leading scorer De’Andre Hunter back Thursday after he missed two games due to right knee discomfort.

The Hawks struggled Wednesday when the Mavericks aggressively double-teamed point guard Trae Young for most of the game. Young didn’t score his first basket until five minutes remained in the first half, and he was limited to 21 points. He only shot three free throws, limiting a key part of his game.

Atlanta also committed 16 turnovers and continue to rank near the bottom of the league at 14.8 per game.

“We’re turning the ball over in bunches,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. “Our turnovers are mounting and they’re costly. We’ve got to be able to execute when the other team takes us out of our action … execute better against the schemes teams are throwing against us.”

Hawks center Clint Capela continues to rebound at a torrid pace. He has pulled down 10-plus rebounds in 17 straight games, the longest streak in the NBA this season and the longest by an Atlanta player since Dwight Howard’s 19-game run in 2017. Capela, who averages 13.6 points and 14.3 rebounds, and will be matched against Utah’s Rudy Gobert, who averages 13.3 points and 13.4 rebounds.

Utah recovered from a Sunday loss at Denver to earn a 117-105 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. The Jazz nearly blew a 28-point lead, watching the advantage dwindle to four points with 2:06 left before answering with back-to-back 3-pointers from Bojan Bogdanovic.

“Sometimes when you build a big lead like that, the whole narrative becomes, ‘What happened?’ because you didn’t win by 30,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “These are NBA teams. They’re good teams. There’s going to be runs. The big thing for us is to make that hard.”

Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points against the Pistons. It was the first time he scored 20-plus since Jan. 23, a four-game stretch that saw him miss two contests because of concussion protocol. Mitchell averages a team-leading 23.3 points and has averaged 23.7 in six career games against the Hawks.

Utah’s Joe Ingles, who slid into the starting lineup for the two games Mitchell missed, learned Wednesday he had been named to the Australian Olympics team for the fourth time. Ingles, in his seventh NBA season, averages 10.5 points and 4.2 assists.

This will be the second meeting between the two clubs. Utah won the first contest 116-92 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 15. Young scored a season-low four points in that game.

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DETROIT vs UTAH
When: 2/2/2021 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: UTAH , DETROIT

Oddsmakers currently have the UTAH listed as point favorites versus the DETROIT, while the game’s total is sitting at .

The NBA’s longest winning streak of the season ended Sunday, but the Utah Jazz might have to wait longer than scheduled to get back in the victory column.

The Jazz’s game Tuesday night in Salt Lake City against Detroit might not be played after the Pistons’ scheduled Monday contest at Denver was postponed just before tipoff in accordance to the league’s health and safety protocols.

ESPN reported that a Detroit player tested positive/inconclusive for COVID-19, leaving the team without the required minimum of eight players.

As of late Monday night, the Tuesday game between the Jazz and Pistons was still on the NBA’s slate.

Utah is due to host Atlanta on Thursday while Detroit is scheduled to finish its Western Conference trip in Phoenix on Friday and at the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. The Pistons’ road swing began Saturday with a 118-91 loss at Golden State, Detroit’s sixth defeat in eight games.

The Jazz lost Sunday for the first time since falling at New York on Jan. 6, a span that included 11 consecutive wins. That streak, which saw the Jazz beat 10 opponents by double digits, led to Jazz coach Quin Snyder being named the NBA’s Western Conference coach of the month for the December/January period. Snyder moved past Frank Layden into second place behind Jerry Sloan for wins in Jazz history.

Utah likely will need a better defensive effort than it gave Sunday in the 128-117 loss at Denver to start a new winning streak. The most glaring stat from the defeat: The Nuggets hit 15 of 17 3-point attempts in the first half while jumping out to a 79-54 halftime lead.

Nikola Jokic led Denver with a whopping 47 points against the porous Utah defense.

“We didn’t play our best, that’s what hurts, especially the way we played the last two games against Dallas,” said Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, who was back in action after missing two games while in concussion protocol. “To have that performance and they come out and they shoot 15 of 17, that’s what hurts the most.”

The Nuggets gave the Jazz some of the medicine they had been doling out for the previous 3 1/2 weeks, going up by as many 28 points before Utah narrowed the gap. Ultimately, the Jazz didn’t have enough to overcome the large deficit, and the team’s longest winning streak since 2009 came to an end.

“We cross matched, we played zone, we doubled, we played man,” Snyder said. “But ultimately I think regardless of what you do, we have to play with more of an edge and more urgency.”

If Tuesday’s game happens as scheduled, the Jazz would increase the number of fans allowed in the arena from 1,500 to 3,902, according to the Deseret News.

The Pistons have now had two games postponed this season, including a Jan. 13 home game against the Washington Wizards, who had a lengthy COVID-related shutdown.

“You have to be nimble, you have to be flexible and you have to expect the unexpected,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said recently. “And that’s how this entire season is going to go, and if you go into it thinking it’s going to be a normal day, that’s when your life will be a little bit disrupted.”

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UTAH vs DENVER
When: 1/31/2021 3:30 PM
Where:

TV: 3:30 PM
LINE: 1
PREDICTION: DENVER , UTAH

Oddsmakers currently have the DENVER listed as 1 point favorites versus the UTAH, while the game’s total is sitting at 219.5.

Friday night in San Antonio, the Denver Nuggets came within a quarter of sweeping a five-game road trip and extending their winning streak to six games. It was an impressive run, but not as impressive as what the Utah Jazz have been doing lately.

Utah has reeled off 11 straight wins, the past two without Donovan Mitchell and Derrick Favors, and at 15-4 own the best record in the NBA. The Jazz will put that streak on the line when they visit the Nuggets for an early afternoon matchup on Sunday.

Mitchell (concussion protocol) and Favors (lower back soreness) haven’t played since last Tuesday but traveled to Denver on Friday while their teammates were completing a two-game home sweep of the Dallas Mavericks. Their status for Sunday is unknown.

If one or both can’t play, it will be tougher to beat a Nuggets team that has found some footing over the past few weeks, but Utah has played well without them, too. Different players have stepped up in their absence, giving the Jazz a boost against the Mavericks.

“It does bode well for us when we know that guys like Don can miss a few games and we can still win, and especially with Fav out,” Mike Conley said after Friday’s 120-101 victory. “It’s tough to lose those guys, not have them, but for us to come out and play against a good team, and not only just a good team but two times in a row, and come out with wins, just says a lot about our team and our resiliency.”

Denver has found some of that resiliency after starting the season with four losses in the first five games. The Nuggets won 10 of their next 13 before falling 119-109 to the Spurs on Friday night. Nikola Jokic continues to play at an MVP level, notching his 19th straight double-double to start the year.

He was averaging a triple-double for the season but his assists totals have fallen off. Over the past six games Jokic is averaging just 5.3 per game and is now third in the league at 8.7 per game.

The good news for Denver is Gary Harris seems to have broken out of an extended offensive slump. Harris is known for his defense but the Nuggets need his scoring, too. In the past nine games, he has hit 46.5 percent from 3-point range.

“The one thing that I love about Gary Harris is that every night, he doesn’t complain,” coach Michael Malone said. “He embraces the challenge of guarding the other team’s best weapon. And that’s every single game that we play.”

If Mitchell doesn’t play Sunday, it will make Harris’ day a little easier on the defensive end and give Denver a chance to even up the season series. Utah won the first matchup, 109-105, in Denver on Jan. 17. It was a continuation of the budding rivalry that started in the first round of the postseason near Orlando last summer when the Nuggets rallied from 3-1 down in the series and won Game 7 to advance in the Western Conference playoffs.

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NEW ORLEANS vs UTAH
When: 1/19/2021 9:00 PM
Where:

TV: 9:00 PM
LINE: -6
PREDICTION: UTAH , NEW ORLEANS

Oddsmakers currently have the UTAH listed as -6 point favorites versus the NEW ORLEANS, while the game’s total is sitting at 217.5.

Whether for skiing or attending the Sundance Film Festival, it is common for visitors to spend time in Utah during January.

And the New Orleans Pelicans?

They are in Salt Lake City for an extended business trip, playing games against the Utah Jazz on both Tuesday and Thursday.

If things go well for the Pelicans in both games they can leave with the same number of wins in Utah as the Jazz have: two.

Although Utah is riding a Rocky Mountain high all the way home after beating Northwest Division rival Denver on Sunday for a fifth-consecutive victory, the Jazz haven’t had as much success at home (2-2) as on the road (7-2).

Winning twice in Utah won’t be an easy task for New Orleans, which snapped a five-game losing streak with a 128-123 victory at Sacramento on Sunday. It came on the same night the Jazz earned their fifth straight victory when they defeated the Nuggets.

The Jazz will have to be wary of a letdown. Utah’s 108-104 road win came in the first rematch since Denver rallied out of a 3-1 deficit to win their classic first-round playoff series last season. It was one of those circle-the-date-on-the-calendar games.

“It’s still the Jazz and the Nuggets. Whether you need to reference (the playoffs) or not, your players remember,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said after Sunday’s victory. “Given the fact that it is the first time we have played them since then, I don’t know if it’s in the front of your mind, but it is certainly something you have thought about.”

The win over the Nuggets highlighted the improved versatility of the Jazz roster. All-Star Donovan Mitchell had a rough shooting night to finish with 18 points, but reserve Jordan Clarkson scored 23 points, All-Defensive Team member center Rudy Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds, Bojan Bogdanovic added 17 points and Mike Conley dished out eight assists with 14 points. Royce O’Neale, Georges Niang, and even rookie Miye Oni, played key roles.

“It’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows where we execute the game plan 110 percent,” said Mitchell, who struggled to a two-point first half. “We went out there and for us, just asserting our will, finding ways to win the game by any means necessary.”

The Pelicans needed a variety of big nights to overcome a career-best 43-point performance by Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox on Sunday.

Three New Orleans players had 20-plus points as Zion Williamson led the way with 31. That was one point short of a season-high as he made 13-of-15 shots. Brandon Ingram added 22 points and Eric Bledsoe scored 21.

“He finds his way to the rim regardless of the defense and he’s a good finisher,” New Orleans coach Stan Van Gundy said of Williamson. “He probably should shoot twice as many free throws as he does. He’s not even getting calls and he’s efficient.”

The game could be the first time Derrick Favors faces New Orleans after playing for the Pelicans last year in between stints with Utah. Favors is listed as day-to-day because of his ailing knee.

Joe Ingles (Achilles) and Juwan Morgan (COVID-19 protocol) are out for Utah, and Lonzo Ball won’t play for the Pelicans due to a knee injury.

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UTAH vs DENVER
When: 1/17/2021 8:00 PM
Where:

TV: 8:00 PM
LINE: -1
PREDICTION: DENVER , UTAH

Oddsmakers currently have the DENVER listed as -1 point favorites versus the UTAH, while the game’s total is sitting at 219.5.

A rematch of one of the more compelling playoff series from The Bubble will take place Sunday night when the Denver Nuggets host the Utah Jazz.

This will be the first time the Northwest Division rivals play each other since the Nuggets stormed back from a 3-1 deficit — and a double-digit deficit in a must-win Game 5 — to stun the Jazz in a classic, seven-game series at the beginning of the 2020 playoffs.

That first-round series between the Nuggets and Jazz featured a high-scoring duel that won’t soon be forgotten between All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell of Utah and Jamal Murray of Denver.

Mitchell averaged 36.3 points against Denver in the playoffs, including scoring outings of 57, 51, and 44 points. The former Louisville standout averaged 52.9 percent shooting and dropped in 33 3-pointers in the series.

Murray had two 50-point performances against Utah and averaged 31.6 points on 55 percent shooting.

That epic first round included a Game 5 win that required Denver to rally from of a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to avoid elimination. Murray fired in nine 3-pointers in a 119-107 Game 6 win, and the Nuggets survived a grind-it-out, 80-78 defensive battle in Game 7 to advance. Denver had beaten Utah in all three regular-season games.

“It was a great battle,” Murray said after the series. “I don’t know what else to say. I’m speechless.”

Four and a half months later, both teams are playing well coming into this rematch. The Nuggets have won three of four, including a recent 114-104 win over Golden State.

The Jazz is on a four-game winning streak, which began with a win at Milwaukee. Utah has held three straight teams below 100 points. Its defense limited Atlanta’s leading scorer, Trae Young, to only four points in Friday’s 116-92 win over the Hawks.

“Everybody that guarded him, primarily Mike (Conley) and Royce (O’Neale), they were solid,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “The main thing we talked about was not fouling, showing our hands. Rudy (Gobert) and (Derrick) Favors were great as well, protecting the rim.”

Mitchell and Murray have had their moments this season, although not nearly to the dominating level of their playoff spectacle. Denver’s Nikola Jokic is now the player in the spotlight, garnering respect league-wide while averaging a triple-double of 24.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, and a league-high 10.4 assists.

“I think he’d definitely be in the MVP conversation, which is entirely too early to talk about,” Denver coach Michael Malone said after Jokic scored 23 points in the win over the Warriors. “That’s the kind of impact he’s had on the game every single night.”

The Serbian center’s Utah counterpart, French center Gobert, is averaging a career-best 2.8 blocks an outing to go with 11.9 points and 13.3 rebounds an outing coming into their latest tete-a-tete.

Joe Ingles remains day-to-day for Utah after having missed three games with right Achilles soreness.

The Nuggets could again be without Gary Harris, who has missed two straight games for personal reasons, and Michael Porter Jr. is out because of COVID-19 protocols.

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UTAH vs SAN ANTONIO
When: 1/3/2021 7:05 PM
Where:

TV: 7:05 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: SAN ANTONIO , UTAH

Oddsmakers currently have the SAN ANTONIO listed as point favorites versus the UTAH, while the game’s total is sitting at 220.

The San Antonio Spurs look to turn things around Sunday when they host the Utah Jazz in the finale of three-game homestand.

The Spurs are coming off a 109-103 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. San Antonio has dropped three straight games, including back-to-back defeats at home against the defending champion Lakers, after opening the season with a pair of wins.

The Jazz head to San Antonio on the heels of a 106-100 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday. Utah has alternated wins and losses in its first five games this year and looks to forge its first winning streak of the season.

Second-year player Keldon Johnson had a career-high 26 points for San Antonio in the loss to the Lakers and added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. He made 5 of 9 shots from 3-point range and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.

“We played a heck of a basketball team, and we were a good basketball team tonight also,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the loss. “I was happy with their play.”

DeMar DeRozan had 23 points for San Antonio. Rudy Gay scored 15 in the loss, while Dejounte Murray had 12 points and Patty Mills tallied 10 for the Spurs.

“We just played the champs at a high level, and we can go out there and play with anybody else in this league,” DeRozan said after the game.

Spurs guard Derrick White scored nine points in 23 minutes in his season debut and return from offseason toe surgery. Center LaMarcus Aldridge missed his second straight game for San Antonio with a sore knee and what was listed on the injury report as “an undisclosed illness.”

Mike Conley had a breakout game for Utah in its win against the Clippers, scoring a season-high 33 points and hitting seven 3-pointers to lead the Jazz, who won for the first time at home this year.

The Jazz dominated most of the game and led by 19 points in the fourth quarter before Los Angeles cut the deficit to just a point with 3:15 to play. Conley and Rudy Gobert carried the team down the stretch, combining to score Utah’s last 11 points

“Mike did a good job tonight of just controlling the game,” Utah forward Derrick Favors said about Conley. “He was finding his shots, he was finding the teammates open for their shots. He came up big for us, hitting big shots at the end of the game, hitting big shots when we needed him to. He just did a great job of controlling the whole game and just making big plays for us.”

Donovan Mitchell added 15 points for the Jazz. Favors added a season-high 14 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, while Gobert scored 12 points and Joe Ingles hit for 11 points in the win.

The Spurs went 3-1 against Utah last season and own a 108-84 all-time edge over the Jazz, including a 74-22 advantage in games played in the Alamo City.

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LA CLIPPERS vs UTAH
When: 1/1/2021 9:00 PM
Where:

TV: 9:00 PM
LINE: 2.5
PREDICTION: UTAH , LA CLIPPERS

Oddsmakers currently have the UTAH listed as 2.5 point favorites versus the LA CLIPPERS, while the game’s total is sitting at 226.

The Utah Jazz face a tough task Friday night in Salt Lake City as they seek their first home win of the season while facing the Los Angeles Clippers.

Though the Clippers were the butt of many jokes around the sports world after losing by 51 points to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, they have bounced back with consecutive 23-point home victories over the Minnesota Timberwolves (124-101 on Tuesday) and the Portland Trail Blazers (128-105 on Wednesday).

More bad news for Utah, which lost 106-95 to the Phoenix Suns on New Year’s Eve after earning a one-point road win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday: Kawhi Leonard is back for the Clippers.

Leonard led Los Angeles past the Trail Blazers with 28 points after missing the meltdown against the Mavericks and the game vs. the Timberwolves because of a mouth laceration that required eight stitches. He sported a protective face mask in the Portland game.

The Clippers have more weapons than just Leonard, of course. Paul George has led the team in scoring three times so far and had 23 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to support Leonard against Portland. Five Los Angeles players average double-figure scoring, and another four chip in between seven and eight points apiece each outing.

“Guys are playing hard, we’re locked in,” said Lou Williams, who scored 15 in the Clippers’ most recent win. “We know we have a lot of guys who are capable. We’re playing with trust.”

The Jazz also have a lot of capable guys, but they aren’t all clicking. Utah has struggled since opening the season with a 20-point win at Portland, dropping two of the past three games.

Normally boasting one of the best home-court advantages in the NBA, Utah has lost its only two games in Salt Lake City while winning both of its road contests.

“I guess the way I’d characterize it is we’ve had breakdowns, whether it be on offense, whether we’re not spaced. (And) defensively we’re over helping,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “There’s a number of situations where we need to be collectively better.”

Donovan Mitchell leads Utah with an average of 21 points per game, but he has yet to play consistently at an All-Star level this season. The Jazz really could have used Bojan Bogdanovic’s shooting against Phoenix, but the forward scored only three points, missing all five of his shots from the field.

“We just have to be better,” Snyder said. “We played really well against Portland, as well as we can play, and we haven’t played well since then. For us, there are certain things that we know that we need to do to be successful, and we need to do them. If we’re not playing to our strengths, it’s going to be difficult for us.”

The Friday contest will be Utah’s last chance in a while to win at home. After the game, the Jazz embark on a seven-game road trip that starts Sunday in San Antonio.

Utah won two of its three meetings with the Clippers in the abbreviated 2019-20 season. The Clippers have lost five straight in Salt Lake City, dating back to 2017.

The Jazz come into this matchup with a healthy roster, while the Clippers continue to be without Marcus Morris Sr., who is dealing with knee soreness.

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PHOENIX vs UTAH
When: 12/31/2020 9:05 PM
Where:

TV: 9:05 PM
LINE: -4
PREDICTION: UTAH , PHOENIX

Oddsmakers currently have the UTAH listed as -4 point favorites versus the PHOENIX, while the game’s total is sitting at 218.

The Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz both look to build on recent success and end a bizarre and difficult 2020 on a positive note when they meet Thursday night in Salt Lake City.

Phoenix, which has wins over Dallas, Sacramento and New Orleans this season, will try to win three in a row for the first time since ending the 2019-20 season with an eight-game winning streak in the NBA bubble this summer.

The Jazz hope to earn their first home win of the season after escaping from Oklahoma City with a 110-109 victory Monday. Utah lost its only home game Saturday against Minnesota after a season-opening win at Portland.

“I don’t feel like we played our best, but that’s the challenge, to figure out how to win when you don’t have your best game,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said after beating the Thunder on the road for the first time in a decade. “We hope we can take this and build on it and keep getting better.”

This is the first night of a home back-to-back set for the Jazz, who host the Clippers on New Year’s Day before a seven-game road trip.

The Jazz have won two of three games so far despite a rough shooting start for All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. He’s averaging 20.3 points, but has only hit 32.3 percent of his field goals and 27.6 percent from 3-point range.

Mitchell, who signed a $195 million extension in the offseason, finished strong after struggling with his shot against Oklahoma City. He fired in the final 12 points for Utah, including a game-winning layup with seven seconds remaining. Mitchell ended with 20 points on 8-of-23 shooting.

Utah was also boosted by the play of Bojan Bogdanovic (23 points) and Mike Conley (20).

Snyder liked that Mitchell used screens more effectively and adjusted to the Thunder’s defense better as the night progressed.

“That’s the idea,” Snyder said, “to get better as the game goes on.”

Likewise, the Suns’ star-studded backcourt combo of Chris Paul and Devin Booker got plenty of help against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday. Jae Crowder poured in 21 points with five 3-pointers, Cameron Johnson added 18 points, and DeAndre Ayton contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds in the 111-86 victory.

“We couldn’t contain them on the dribble, we couldn’t handle the ball, their pressure really got us, the pace got us,” New Orleans coach Stan Van Gundy said about the well-rounded Suns. “They had a much higher energy level.”

In all, six Phoenix players scored in double figures, a group that didn’t include Paul or Booker. They combined for 17 points, with Paul tallying nine points and nine assists in 23 minutes and Booker scoring eight points in 26 minutes.

“If you can win a game like that and only play Booker and Chris no more than (26) minutes, it gives the other guys confidence,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “But we know who our two best players are. There’s no mistaking that.”

Dario Saric played for the first time this season Tuesday after missing three games with right quad soreness, while Jalen Smith sat out with an ankle sprain. Utah doesn’t have any listed injuries.

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UTAH vs OKLAHOMA CITY
When: 12/28/2020 8:00 PM
Where:

TV: 8:00 PM
LINE: 7.5
PREDICTION: OKLAHOMA CITY , UTAH

Oddsmakers currently have the OKLAHOMA CITY listed as 7.5 point favorites versus the UTAH, while the game’s total is sitting at 221.

The last time the Utah Jazz were in Oklahoma City, the sports world — and the world at large — was about to change significantly.

On March 11, Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 before his Jazz were scheduled to play the Thunder.

That game was postponed, soon after the NBA season was suspended and the rest of the sports world followed, elevating the pandemic into the American consciousness.

“The whole evening was surreal,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said not long after last season resumed in the summer. “That game was a unique set of circumstances that we’ll never see again.”

On Monday, more than nine months after Gobert’s positive test, the Jazz return to Chesapeake Energy Arena to face the Thunder in Oklahoma City’s home opener.

While the OKC roster features just five returning players from last season, Utah is much the same.

That includes Gobert, who has been a thorn in the Thunder’s side.

Gobert played a big role in helping the Jazz eliminate Oklahoma City in the first round of the 2018 playoffs. No one remains on the Thunder roster from that team.

The Jazz (1-1) are coming off a 116-111 home loss to Minnesota on Saturday.

“We have to come with a better sense of urgency from the tip,” veteran point guard Mike Conley said. “We have to be better than that. I think we will. We’ll learn from it.”

Monday’s game is the second of 10 road games in the first 14 games for the Jazz.

Oklahoma City (1-0) is coming off a 109-107 win at Charlotte on Saturday, a game where the Thunder blew a 13-point lead in the final two minutes before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s jumper with less than two minutes left elevated them to victory.

It was the Thunder’s first win under coach Mark Daigneault, who replaced Billy Donovan in the offseason after Donovan left to coach Chicago.

After the win, Daigneault’s players gave him high marks for his performance, especially during that final two minutes where things were slipping away.

Gilgeous-Alexander compared Daigneault to Doc Rivers, who Gilgeous-Alexander played for with the Los Angeles Clippers at the start of his career.

“Personally, I don’t see no difference,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That says a lot about Coach Mark. Composed. We, myself, almost gave the game away. But (Daigneault was) super composed, kept our heads up, kept us confident. He was our leader down the stretch, even though things weren’t going the right way and just (stayed) in the right frame of mild — cool, calm, collected.”

After being a complementary piece in his first three seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander is now the face of the Thunder’s franchise.

“I do feel really comfortable in this role I’m extremely blessed to have,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

Thunder guard Ty Jerome missed Saturday’s opener with a left ankle sprain and remains day-to-day. Jerome, the lone player that remains with Oklahoma City from the offseason trade of Chris Paul, missed all three preseason games with the injury.

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