Utah Jazz at Brooklyn Nets key matchup: Derrick Favors and Trevor Booker

The Utah Jazz will take on the Brooklyn Nets in the second of four straight road games as they look to begin the resurrection of their season with another win over Trevor Booker and company.

It’s an important game indeed for the Utah Jazz as any winnable game that falls through their grasp is more and more dangerous at this point in the season. The injury ravaged Jazz are trying to savor every possible opportunity before their nightmare stretch begins in December.

Standing in the way of their first road win is former Jazz-man Trevor Booker. Without Rudy Gobert in the lineup, the Jazz may not have the same interior presence, but Derrick Favors has stepped up in a big way thus far, and will enjoy the challenge of taking on his old teammate.

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In Utah’s win over the Nets last Saturday, Booker’s hustle and determination were evident against his former team from the second he checked into the game. His stat line was solid but not too overwhelming; logging 12 points and five rebounds in 19 minutes. But as usual, Booker’s hustle and overall impact was still what held Brooklyn within striking distance the entire game.

Despite a solid outing from Trevor Booker, Derrick Favors was not to be denied of a breakout performance that saw him drop a season high 24 points to go along with his season high of 12 rebounds.

The Jazz will be without Dante Exum, Joe Johnson, the Stifle Tower and possibly Ricky Rubio, who is being listed as questionable with a sore Achilles. It is currently unknown whether Rubio has been hampered by his sore Achilles for some time now and it may have been a factor in his poor shooting. I can tell you from past experience that this injury can certainly affect your shot.

Without that same elasticity in your lower leg, your knee bend gets thrown all out of wack and it typically means missing shots left and right, which is exactly what Rubio has done in recent games. So hopefully for Rubio and the Jazz, this injury is not too serious as Utah can’t afford another player on the injury report for a sustained period of time.

Utah Jazz

Back on to the subject of tonight’s key matchup, after Timofey Mozgov’s atrocious outing against the Jazz, Trevor Booker drew the start in their narrow loss to the Boston Celtics. This may have been a move by head coach Kenny Atkinson to combat Boston’s small lineup with Al Horford at center but Mozgov was ineffective in just five minutes of play.

So it looks likely that Trevor Booker will start tonight matched up with Derrick Favors at center. If Book hopes to propel his team to a victory, he’ll have to negate the impact of Derrick Favors in the paint.

All season, Favors has looked incredible when he catches the ball in the pick and roll and dives strong to the hoop. D-Faves is shooting an incredible 75 percent from within three feet of the basket. When he’s passive and goes to the floater instead of taking right into the restricted area, however, his percentage decreases dramatically (36 percent from between 3-10 feet).

For the Jazz to have a chance at their first road win, Favors will have to dominate in similar fashion to the last battle between these two squads. With so much talent unable to play with injuries, there is very little margin for error.

Next: Utah Jazz notes: Gobert fires back at Waiters, John Cleese is jazzed

Let’s see if Faves and the Jazz can get their season back on track tonight with a road win over Trevor Booker and the Brooklyn Nets.

Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference.