Game thread: Utah Jazz look to continue bounce-back with Warriors in town

The Utah Jazz will look to win a second consecutive game for the first time since November when they host Golden State on Friday.

Although it was good to see the Utah Jazz earn a win on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, I still come bearing some bad news. The Jazz haven’t won consecutive games since November 22nd and 23rd.

While that may be the bad news, the good news is that one of those two wins came against the lowly Golden State Warriors, who are exactly the team Utah happens to be playing on Friday night. In other words, they find themselves in a great position to break their curse and finally win two straight once again.

It’s been a rough stretch lately for a Jazz team that has seemed to lose its mojo, but hopefully the win over Minnesota was a sign of a change in their ways that will continue against the Warriors on Friday.

It still feels a little weird to consider the Warriors as such a feeble opponent considering how daunting they were for the previous five seasons, but injuries have obviously torn them apart and left them a shell of their former selves this season. Golden State enters Friday’s game with the worst record in the Western Conference of 5-21.

The Warriors are coming off a loss to the almost equally abysmal New York Knicks on Wednesday night, and have lost eight of their last 10 contests. In short, this is absolutely a game the Jazz should win and quite handily.

Even so, the Jazz can’t afford to get complacent. They haven’t exactly been world-beaters themselves lately as they’ve lost a number of games to inferior teams. Even a bad team like the Warriors has NBA talent in its ranks and simply can’t be overlooked. They still have a couple former All-Stars on their team in Draymond Green and D’Angelo Russell, and guys like Eric Paschall, Glenn Robinson III and even former Jazzman Alec Burks have stepped up on occasion.

In the last battle between these two teams, it was Ky Bowman that provided a surprising challenge for the Jazz. Utah took their foot off the pedal in that game and only managed a four-point victory, so they’ll need to be much more on point in Friday’s bout if they want to earn a convincing win over a low-quality team.

Not to mention, it is Friday the 13th, a day notorious for strange things taking place, so the Jazz will have to be extra cautious.

Game Data

Broadcast Info

Tip-off: 7:00 PM MT on December 13 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

As of this writing, there has yet to be an update on Mike Conley‘s injury status, but considering that he’s now missed four straight games and that the Warriors are a team the Jazz should be able to beat quite easily even without him, I’d imagine that the training staff continues to be cautious with him and holds him out on Friday.

On the Warriors’ side of things, of course we know that Klay Thompson is out as he continues to recover from a torn ACL and is unlikely to return this season. Meanwhile, fellow superstar Stephen Curry is also out as he recovers from a broken hand that will be re-evaluated in February.

Prediction

The Jazz looked better in Minnesota than they have lately, but they still haven’t been all that convincing. Even so, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to beat this battered and abysmal Warriors team.

The Action Network has the Jazz as a fair 12-point favorites, but I’ll honestly be disappointed if Utah doesn’t find a way to win by at least 20.

I’m going with Utah prevailing 119-99.

Discussion

#GSWatUTA 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!