Game thread: Utah Jazz look to reignite win streak against tired Thunder

The Utah Jazz will aim to take advantage of a fatigued Oklahoma City Thunder team and begin building a bit of a win streak.

It may not have been all that impressive that the Utah Jazz triumphed over a lackluster Memphis Grizzlies team, but the fact that they achieved one of their few blowout wins of the season after struggling so mightily in the six games prior was still significant. The Jazz played quite well against the Grizzlies on Saturday, and the win may have very well provided them with a much-needed jolt of confidence.

With that win under their belts, the Jazz will now look to build a win streak by earning a second straight victory, this time as they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. The Thunder have been an interesting team so far this year. They undoubtedly have some talent with the likes of Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and Steven Adams in their ranks, but thus far they’ve had a hard time stringing much success together.

OKC is just 10-12 on the year and are the definition of an average squad with the 18th-ranked offensive rating and 14th-ranked defensive rating. However, to their credit, they’ve been a competitive opponent this season and a tough out on several occasions, even against very good teams.

In fact, as the standings lie currently, the Thunder are actually in eighth place in the West, meaning they’d be in the postseason mix if the playoffs started today. That’s both a surprising feat and a testament to how much worse than expected the Western Conference has been this year.

But the Thunder have actually been quite hot of late as they’re coming off two straight wins, one over the Portland Trail Blazers and the previous over a solid Minnesota Timberwolves team. OKC has won four of its last five games, and just a few games prior to that nearly beat the Los Angeles Lakers twice and the LA Clippers, losing each contest by a margin between two and five points.

So, considering how well the Thunder have been playing and how poorly the Jazz have, this is a game in which the home Utah squad will need to be prepared and not allow themselves to be caught unaware. Steven Adams has long given Rudy Gobert troubles, Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder are both renowned Jazz killers and both Gilgeous-Alexander and Gallinari are effective scorers that can light up any team.

The good news for the Jazz is that OKC will very likely be coming into this game fatigued. Monday’s contest will be their third game in four nights and it comes on the second night of a back-to-back after playing in Portland on Sunday evening. Road back-to-backs can be brutal, and considering the heavy travel the Thunder are facing, they may find themselves short on energy and endurance in this upcoming bout.

The Jazz will have to hope such is the case because earning a win over this Oklahoma City squad won’t be easy. OKC nearly got the best of the Jazz in the season opener, and they’ll look to maintain their playoff spot and actually succeed in toppling them this time around. The Jazz, meanwhile, really need a win if they are to continue to climb the Western Conference standings, prove they aren’t pretenders as they’ve looked the past couple weeks and get their season back on track.

In short, it should be a difficult yet important bout for both teams involved. I’m expecting it to be a very good game.

Game Data

Broadcast Info

Tip-off: 7:00 PM MT on December 9 from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, UT
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: The Zone Sports Network (97.5 FM & 1280 AM Salt Lake City)

Projected Starting Lineups

Injuries

The Utah Jazz did just fine against Memphis without Mike Conley, but I have a feeling his absence is going to be severely felt in this upcoming bout in their efforts to contain Chris Paul. Conley hasn’t had the best year for the Jazz thus far, but his defense would have been very helpful in this one. Unfortunately, he’ll miss yet another contest with left hamstring tightness.

Meanwhile, the Thunder remain without both Hamidou Diallo (elbow) and Andre Roberson (knee) who are dealing with longer-term injuries. Terrance Ferguson, meanwhile, missed Sunday’s game against the Blazers as he deals with a hip issue and isn’t expected to suit up against the Jazz either.

Prediction

This one isn’t going to be a cakewalk. And although the Jazz won big over Memphis, I don’t know if I can see them shooting that well again, especially considering how ugly they looked on both sides of the ball in their slump before that. They were far from fully patched-up against the Grizzlies either as several issues still reared their ugly head.

However, I think fatigue will be a big factor for the Thunder and that they’ll simply be out-matched within the tough road environment that Vivint Smart Home Arena will create. The Jazz need to continue to show improvements, and if they do so, I think they’ll come away with a win.

The Action Network has them listed as 8.5-point favorites, and before reading that I was expecting an eight-point win, so hopefully our similar wavelengths will mean good things for the Jazz. I’m pinning them to win 112-104.

Discussion

#OKCatUTA is the Twitter hashtag for the game and our live comment thread below will be up and rolling throughout the game as well. Go Jazz!