October 19, 2018: Golden State Warriors vs. Utah Jazz
The home opener for the Utah Jazz is going to be a doozy as they will be taking on the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors.
Now, last season, the Jazz more than proved their own against the Warriors. They lost their first game against them, but it came during a time when the Jazz were hurting big time without the presence of Gobert. With Gobert on the team, though, they would defeat the Warriors over the final three matchups, by a combined 89 points.
89 points! In the second to last game of last season, they won by an astounding 40 points. One of the worst losses of the Golden State era.
To be fair, in a 19-point win for the Jazz, the Warriors didn’t have any of their star players. In the 40 point victory, they didn’t have Steph Curry, but Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green all played. In the 30-point blowout, they were at full strength, and the Jazz simply took it to them.
For whatever reason, the Jazz seem to be perfectly suited to compete with the Warriors. This will be a great test early on to see if they can carry on the momentum from last season, and put the Western Conference and entire NBA on notice.