The Utah Jazz bring their stifling D to Madison Square Garden to take on Emmanuel Mudiay and a struggling New York Knicks team.
No game is surefire win in the Association, but on Wednesday night the Utah Jazz will get as close to one as humanly possible.
After tipping off a four-game Eastern swing by embarrassing the Washington Wizards, reigning Western Conference POTW Rudy Gobert and the Jazz band will hit up Madison Square Garden to take on the lowly New York Knicks.
To say that the Knicks are dreadful is actually a massive understatement. In late December, the Jazz whipped them to the tune of 32 points at Vivint Smart Home Arena, and they’ve only gotten worse since then.
For the year, New York is now dead last offensively, scoring just 104.2 points per 100 possessions with a league-worst effective field goal percentage of 48.8. The Knicks are also terrible on the other side of the ball with the league’s 27th-ranked D-rating (112.7).
At this point, though, that’s kind of the plan.
The Knicks have essentially been working to accumulate pingpong balls for the NBA Draft lottery and prepare summer pitches to Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving for multiple months now. To that end, they’ve lost nine of their last 10 games.
I’d wish them luck in their pursuit of a superstar free agent and future No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, but it’s the Knicks, so things are bound to break bad for them. And owner James Dolan is really racking up the bad karma these days.
Needless to say, the Jazz should come out of this one with a season sweep and their fifth straight win. Especially with Dennis Smith, Jr. ruled out of the contest with a back injury and Derrick Favors (hamstring soreness) probable to suit up for Utah.
In his stead, Emmanuel Mudiay will captain the ship for the Knicks. The fourth-year pro is just three days removed from dropping 28 points and eight assists on the LA Lakers. However, he followed that performance up with a 2-for-7 night in a blowout loss to the Toronto Raptors.
I wouldn’t anticipate he or anyone else on the Knicks rediscovering the magic against a Jazz squad that is holding the opposition to just 0.98 points per possession over its last five games, the top mark across the Association.
Bottom line, this is going to be an ugly game for the Knicks and a big win for the Jazz. Outside of the battle between Gobert and DeAndre Jordan, who always have entertaining head-to-head match-ups down low, there likely won’t be much fight in the home team.
More from The J-Notes
- With the FIBA World Cup over for Simone Fontecchio, it’s clear he deserves minutes for the Utah Jazz
- Best, Worst and Most likely scenarios for the Utah Jazz this season
- Hoops Hype downplays the significance of the Utah Jazz’s valuable assets
- 3 Utah Jazz players who have the most to gain or lose this season
- Former Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gay is a free agent still and it shouldn’t surprise anyone
Look for the Jazz to improve on their big numbers from Monday night in DC and for the Stifle Tower to go wild on both ends of the court.
PREDICTION: Utah Jazz 119, New York Knicks 93
Tip-off for the Jazz-Knicks affair will be at 5:30 PM MT. For live discussion during the game, hit up the live comment stream in the thread below.