10/10 Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Lakers: Keys to the Game

Prediction – Jazz 106, Lakers 94

Although the Jazz have averaged over 114 points per game so far in the preseason, since they’re playing on the second night of a back-to-back and will likely play their starters for very limited minutes, I expect they’ll come back to earth somewhat tonight. Nevertheless, considering that the Lakers defense is far from daunting, I don’t expect that drop-off to be all that dramatic.

The Lakers have shown some promise in preseason so far, but they’re still far away from being able to match the talent and, perhaps more crucially, the depth of the Utah Jazz. Utah’s well-rounded attack that goes even well into their depth chart ought to prove more than the Lakers can handle, thus I’m expecting a 12-point Utah victory tonight.

Next: Utah Jazz: What can we expect from Donovan Mitchell’s rookie campaign?

While I always say that it’s important to not put too much stock into preseason, for better or for worse, there’s still no denying that Utah has shown a lot of promise so far. And if they can top off their performance up to this point with a victory tonight that will put them at 5-0, that will be absolutely exceptional for their confidence heading into the regular season.

It’s been a refreshing start for the Jazz in the early going of the 2017-18 campaign, but the start of the regular season will be the true test. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long to see what the Jazz can truly do as their season opener is just over a week away.