Game thread: Utah Jazz aim to bounce back on road against Spurs

The Utah Jazz will look to shake off Monday’s dud of a loss as they head out on a three-game road trip that begins in San Antonio.

Every team in the NBA, even those among the league’s elite, has a bad game every once in a while. Such was most certainly the case for the Utah Jazz on Monday.

On paper, a loss to the Houston Rockets doesn’t seem that bad. After all, the Rockets are a playoff squad that Utah has struggled with historically. However, considering that Houston was playing on the second night of a back-to-back and was without James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Clint Capela, yeah, I’d say that was a very bad loss. Oh, and add in the fact that they let Eric Gordon go off for 50 against them, and it’s pretty clear how horribly the night went.

Utah came out flat-footed and didn’t play well at all on either end of the floor. They fouled too often, there was no intensity and the shooting was ice cold.

It’s entirely possible that the Jazz were still in a funk after learning the shocking news that Kobe Bryant had passed away in a helicopter accident on Sunday, whereas the Rockets had already played a game on that fateful day to get re-acclimated. It’s also plausible that they just had a rare off night that hopefully was more anomaly than trend starter.

It won’t take us long to find out as the Jazz head out on a three-game road trip that begins in San Antonio on Wednesday. The 2019-20 Spurs haven’t exactly been the powerhouse squad of old considering that they currently find themselves at 9th in the West with a 20-26 record, but with Gregg Popovich at the helm and two All-Star caliber players in DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, they still aren’t a team to be taken lightly.

Although, it should be noted that Aldridge will be out of action as he continues to deal with a thumb injury.

Still, between a legendary coach, a sound system, an ability to control the pace and a host of dangerous role players, particularly in the backcourt, the Spurs can most certainly cause problems for the Jazz. Therefore, Utah will have to play much better than they did on Monday if they want to reverse the fate they suffered against Houston and come away with a win this time around.

Game Data

Broadcast Info

Tip-off: 6:30 PM MT on January 29, 2020 from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: The Zone Sports Network (97.5 FM & 1280 AM Salt Lake City)

Projected Starting Lineups

Injuries

The Utah Jazz are clear on the injury report except Mike Conley continues to struggle and look out of sorts. He’ll likely continue to come off the bench until he can figure out his ideal role on this roster.

Meanwhile, the Spurs will be without LaMarcus Aldridge as he is dealing with a thumb injury.

Prediction

It’s hard to feel overly confident in the Jazz after they laid a massive egg on Monday. Nevertheless, with no Aldridge in action and due to the Spurs’ overall struggles this season, Utah should be able to come away victorious.

The Action Network has the Jazz as narrow 4-point favorites, but I’m going to lean a little more optimistic and say Jazz 112, Spurs 104 in what should be a nice bounce-back game for the visiting team.

Discussion

#UTAatSAS 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!