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Utah Jazz at Oklahoma City Thunder: Keys to keep the win streak alive

By Jared Woodcox

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 21: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder boxes out against Joe Ingles #2 of the Utah Jazz on October 21, 2017 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 21: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder boxes out against Joe Ingles #2 of the Utah Jazz on October 21, 2017 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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SALT LAKE CITY, UT – OCTOBER 21: Steven Adams #12 and Paul George #13 of the Oklahoma City Thunder boxes out against Rudy Gobert #27 of the Utah Jazz on October 21, 2017 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – OCTOBER 21: Steven Adams #12 and Paul George #13 of the Oklahoma City Thunder boxes out against Rudy Gobert #27 of the Utah Jazz on October 21, 2017 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Key #2 – Dominate the Paint

Despite OKC’s issues this season, one area where they have absolutely thrived has been in  preventing their opponents from scoring in the paint. In some ways this comes as little surprise as they have a pair of solid perimeter defenders in Paul George and Andre Roberson that are great at staying in front of their man at keeping them away from the rim, and one of the more underrated rim protectors in the league in Steven Adams.

The Thunder are currently second in the league in opponent points in the paint as they give up just 39.8 such points per game. The Jazz aren’t far behind them as they allow just 40, good for fourth in the league. On the other end of the court, both the Thunder and Jazz are almost identical in the number of points in the paint that they put up themselves as OKC is 26th in the league at 40.7 and Utah is 27th in the league at 40.3.

Therefore, given that neither team has been all that great at putting up points in the paint and both have excelled at defending it, whoever can break their usual trend and excel in this area could very well come up with a big win. That’s exactly what Utah did in their previous commanding win over the Thunder as they outscored them down low by a score of 40-20 in terms of points in the paint.

That’s a very significant margin and a clear indicator of how that dominant performance went for the Jazz. With Derrick Favors playing extremely well of late and Rudy Gobert re-entering the rotation on Monday night and having a good first game back, there’s a good chance for the Jazz to do just that. That duo of big men should be well equipped to keep OKC out of the paint while helping to add to Utah’s point total on the other end.

If the Jazz are somehow able to replicate the post scoring that they showed in their earlier win over the Thunder, they could very well earn a second straight win over OKC and a seventh straight overall.

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