The Utah Jazz are hoping to build on their two game winning streak when take on the Orlando Magic Tuesday night.
Last week the Utah Jazz were only nine points away from blowing a home game to a lowly Golden State Warriors team. Fortunately they rode the momentum of Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic‘s heroics to win the game.
They got a long weekend off to relax and prepare for another stretch of very winnable games. A couple Jazz players, Donovan Mitchell and Royce O’Neale were even spotted at the BYU and Utah State game at the Beehive Classic. Now that the long weekend is over, it’s time to get back to work.
The Orlando Magic barely made the playoffs last season thanks to some strong all-star play from center Nikola Vucevic. Despite their mediocre 42-40 record, they were a trendy pick to make the playoffs again, and some even had them as high as the third seed in the East.
They ended the 2018-19 season on a high note, going 15-8 after the all-star break. They didn’t make the savviest offseason moves, doubling down on forwards with limited range, which they already had a surplus of. But they still had former number one pick Markelle Fultz flying under the radar. He had time and space to rehab his shoulder and reform his jump shot, and teammate Aaron Gordon even gave us a warning that Fultz might have a monster breakout year.
Orlando started off the season with a clunky offense (surprise, surprise). They struggled to hit shots, and their offense couldn’t get out of the bottom five of the league. That’s something unacceptable if you plan on being a playoff team.
They managed to tread water when Nikola Vucevic went down with an ankle injury for 11 games, goin 5-6 in his absence. Since Vooch returned Sunday night, the Magic are no longer a pushover the Jazz can overlook. They are on the beginning of a four game road trip, including a brutal back to back set where they go from the elevation of Salt Lake City (4200 feet) to Denver (5300 feet) in 2 days.
They are fresh off a Sunday night victory in New Orleans where Jonathan Isaac scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and their normally clunky offense found a way to score 130 points on the road.
https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1206971937525661696
Game Data
Broadcast Info
Tip-off: 7:00 PM on December 17 from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, UT.
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: The Zone Sports Network (97.5 FM and 1280 AM Salt Lake City)
Projected Starting Lineups
Utah Jazz Position Orlando Magic
Rudy Gobert C Nikola Vucevic
Royce O’Neale PF Jonathan Isaac
Bojan Bogdanovic SF Aaron Gordon
Donovan Mitchell SG Evan Fournier
Mike Conley PG Markelle Fultz
Injuries
Mike Conley is listed as probable for the game tonight. It will be his first game back since the Jazz returned from the longest road trip of the season where they went 1-4.
Al-Farouq Aminu is out until February with a knee injury. He was acquired by the Orlando Magic in a puzzling move, given that Orlando had recently invested in two high draft picks with the same skillset.
Prediction
Our friends over at the Action Network have the Jazz listed as 5.5 point favorites to win.
The Magic are no pushover as they took care of business against the New Orleans Pelicans Sunday night. Steve Clifford has proven that he can take a rag-tag group of players and get them to the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, and this is a game the Jazz can’t afford to sleep on.
Both teams have similar offensive and defensive ratings, but Utah leads in the win column thanks to the veteran leadership on the roster. I’m also thinking the Jazz will win this one, by the score of 108 to 102.
Discussion
#ORLatUTA is the Twitter hashtag for the game where other NBA fans will be talking about the contest. The comment thread below will be up and running too. Enjoy the game, and go Jazz.