12/30 Utah at Cleveland
6:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass
Opponent record: 24-10
Season series: Cavs lead 1-0
What better way to end the most difficult month that any team faces this season than to play the two reigning conference champion teams in consecutive games. What fun! And how reassuring for Utah’s record!
Despite the disappointing result they faced on Christmas Day, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been absolutely sensational of late. They’ve won 18 of their last 21 games, which included a victory over the Utah Jazz in Cleveland. Led by the great LeBron James, there’s simply no questioning that the Cavs are one of the best teams in the league and an absolute force to be reckoned with.
Under normal circumstances, all logic would point to the Cavs simply winning Saturday’s game in easy fashion. However, for some reason when LeBron comes to Salt Lake, those normal circumstances go out the window. He’s lost six straight contests in Utah, some of which came against less than formidable Jazz teams.
LeBron James will celebrate his 33rd birthday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz on Dec. 30. He is counting down the days. “I’ll be 33 in 15 days and it’s my 15th season and this is the best I’ve felt in my career. I want it all!”
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) December 16, 2017
Therefore, if there’s really a curse in place here, then perhaps the Jazz are destined to hand him a seventh straight loss. After all, Utah has been exceptional at home this year with a record of 12-6 and they’ve recently earned some statement wins over powerhouse teams such as the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs. So if they get hot, who’s to say that they can’t step up and defeat Cleveland once again?
There’s no doubt in my mind that they CAN do it. However, six straight losses for LeBron in a single stadium is absurd in and of itself and I honestly have a hard time seeing it extending any further, especially when contrasting how good the Cavs have played this month compared to how much Utah has struggled this month, albeit it during a tough stretch of schedule.
Therefore, I’m going to be the naysayer, predicting that LeBron’s Salt Lake City curse will come to an end on Saturday as he and the Cleveland Cavaliers will narrowly come out on top.
My Prediction: Cavaliers Win
Final Score: Cleveland 105, Utah 101
Next: Utah Jazz notes: Donovan Mitchell not a fan of Jonas Jerebko’s driving?
I know, I know, picking the Jazz to go 0-3 this week is extremely pessimistic of me. Quite frankly, I believe they’ll end up stealing a game, just like they have the past two weeks despite being the underdogs. The problem is, when evaluating each game individually, I couldn’t tell you which one that will be because on the surface they all seem like losses.
However, I also pinned the Jazz to lose to both San Antonio and Boston in recent contests and they proved me wrong, so there’s no reason to believe they can’t do it again. I’m optimistic that they’ll be able to make me eat my words and do better than the 0-3 mark I’ve pinned them at.
But on the other hand, based on the analysis I’ve provided here, I suppose it wouldn’t surprise me if Utah did indeed drop all three as well. I see the contests against Denver and Cleveland as the more winnable of the three, but each one is going to be brutally difficult.
Things are set to ease up significantly for the Jazz next month, but they’re already in a hole of four games below .500 and if that gets even worse, it’s going to be a challenge for them to get back in the playoff mix. Hopefully they’ll be firing on all cylinders this week and be able to gift us a belated Christmas gift by stealing an unexpected win or two.