Utah Jazz vs. Spurs Preview: Will home sweet home mean a thing?

The Utah Jazz will aim to reverse their misfortune at home when they host the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday evening at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

The Utah Jazz are back home after yet another road trip on their tough early-season slate. After going 2-1 with victories over Brooklyn and Charlotte followed up by a disappointing loss to the Miami Heat, the Jazz still find themselves battling to get to .500 as they enter Tuesday’s contest with an 11-13 record.

While it’s good to be back within Vivint Smart Home Arena, unfortunately things don’t look to be getting any easier. Not only are the Jazz a putrid 2-6 on their home floor, but they’ll be hosting the San Antonio Spurs who are no slouch of a team themselves. Yes, they’re off to a relatively disappointing 11-12 start themselves, but with head coach Gregg Popovich calling the shots and stars such as DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge leading the charge, this is a team that can’t be overlooked.

The Spurs have been somewhat of an odd team this year, though. Typically known for having one of the best defenses in the league, instead San Antonio has been among the worst. They’re giving up 112.4 points per 100 possessions, good for 29th in the league. That plus an overall mediocre offense has them at a net rating of -2.7, 24th in the league which just so happens to be only 0.1 worse than the Jazz who sit at -2.6.

In other words, neither team has been all that great. While some saw that coming for San Antonio as they try to play outside the league trend with two guys who specialize at mid-range shooting, Utah’s slow start has definitely been surprising. Unfortunately, they may be in for a tough time as they aim to reverse that trend with the Spurs in town.

Part of the Jazz’s laundry list of problems includes a seeming inability to defend the perimeter. For the most part, Rudy Gobert is still doing his thing, but when his guards fail to seal off the outside, leading to either easy shots from deep for opponents or an impossible help defense situation for Rudy where he’s expected to be in two spots at once, then the Jazz as a whole struggle. So far on the season, Utah is just 24th in the league in opponent 3-point percentage, allowing them to shoot at a 36.5 percent clip.

That’s a recipe for trouble against a Spurs team that shoots an NBA-best 38.9 percent from the perimeter. Ironically, while San Antonio is the best 3-point shooting team in the league, they’re taking among the fewest attempts. They come in at 29th with 24.4 takes from three per game.

Such is an indication that they’re taking good shots from three within their offense to convert at such a high clip, but it’s also further evidence of their reliance on the mid-range game. That’s unfortunately bad news for the Jazz, whose defense is predicated on forcing teams into hypothetically tough mid-range shots. However, the Spurs seem to thrive in those opportunities, so the Jazz will need to be adaptable.

In last Monday’s home bout against the Indiana Pacers where the Jazz were absolutely blown out of the water, Utah failed to make said adjustments against another team that has players capable of lighting it up from mid-range. Regardless of the shot location, leaving an opponent wide open is never, ever a recipe for success. Yet unfortunately that’s just what the Jazz did time after time.

That led to a 33-point drubbing. If Utah makes the same mistakes against All-Stars DeRozan and Aldridge, and the rest of a competent Spurs squad, they’ll be in deep trouble.

It seems that holding an optimistic approach for the Jazz hasn’t gone so well this season, particularly with their struggles within Vivint Smart Home Arena where they’ve been run off the court on more than one occasion. However, considering that the Jazz have had some decent rest leading up to this game and have every reason to turn things around at home, I’m going to once again give them the benefit of the doubt and pin them to come out on top in the contest.

It won’t be easy, and I certainly think the Spurs provide a tough matchup for Utah, but the Jazz fared well against them a season ago, and I’m liking their chances of continuing that trend yet again on Tuesday night in what figures to be an entertaining spectacle.

Prediction: Jazz 108, Spurs 99

The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs tip-off at 7:00 PM MT in a bout that will be nationally televised on NBA TV. From here, Utah will go on to play a consecutive home game for the first time in nearly a month when they host the erratic Houston Rockets on Thursday.