The Jazz will look for their fans to help them overcome this bad streak and can hope that home court is going to be enough of a difference maker against the road-weary Miami Heat, who come to play on Friday night.
Heat at Jazz
Spread: Utah -3 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 196 points (-110)
Whiteside responds to benching, the Heat win
Mental focus was never a great attribute of Hassan Whiteside, so it was a welcoming site that coach Spoelstra got his attention by pulling him out of a nationally televised game against the Warriors. The Heat scored 46 points more in the next game, beating the Phoenix Suns 126-115 behind a strong effort of their center, and sweet shooting of their backups.
Whiteside scored 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked four shots, in a complete performance. Dragic pulled out his bag of tricks against inexperienced Suns guards, scoring 29 points helped by 10-of-10 from the free throw line. The Heat also welcomed back Waiters, who returned right in time from an injury, as Tyler Johnson was absent from the lineup due to illness. He led four players between 14 and 16 points, as the Heat spread the wealth around again. James Johnson continued his array of master class performances with 15 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists night, leading the second unit. The Heat shot 53 percent from the field in Phoenix, and outscored their foes 53-34. Obviously, there’s a big difference between the Suns and the Warriors, but it was as much due to an increased determination to win by Miami.
Spoelstra had played a short rotation of only 8 players, but White and Adebayo were available. However, Tyler Johnson might miss the game in Utah and is heading to a likely game-time call.
Place: Vivint Smart Home Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
Date/Time: Friday, November 10th, 2017. 9:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: ATTSN-RM, SUN
Jazz lose three in a row, troubled by lack of offense
If you had been reading my previews regularly, you might remember that I warned of a trouble ahead when Joe Johnson had been placed on the injury list. He wasn’t scoring for the Jazz, as his wrist clearly affected him, but created much attention and was the key ballhandler for the second unit. With him on the sidelines, the Utah Jazz dropped three games in a row, two of which at home.
The Jazz last played on Tuesday, hosting a Phila team without Embiid, who had been rested. Instead of making the best of it, the Jazz struggled right off the bat, falling behind 28-13 midway the first quarter. They managed to tie the game at 41, but the third quarter started pretty much the same way like the first – the Sixers were bombing from outside, while the Jazz were missing everything, from treys to gimmies. They fell by 15 again and only managed to close the score in the last minute before eventually succumbing to a 97-104 loss. I didn’t like how the Jazz played in this one. Probably shaken by what the Rockets did to them previously, they wouldn’t play with usual patience and lacked method and plan in their actions. Instead, there was much dribbling by the ballhandlers and as the Sixers game planned to go under the screens, the point guard tried to put everything in their own hands – hardly a Jazz way. Sadly, they both were terrible shooting the ball. Rubio was 4-of-16 and missed all of his 5 three-point attempts, making him almost ‘perfect’ 1-of-14 from deep during this losing streak. This is bad, but he wasn’t even the worst. Rookie Donovan Mitchell grew into Jazz primary scoring option off the bench, and he saved them a few times with excellent contributions, but the rims weren’t his friends this time. He was 3-of-21 (that’s got to be a rookie record for missed shots in a game), and 2-of-11 from three. Meanwhile, the Jazz best player, Rudy Gobert, can only have some opportunities by grabbing offensive rebounds. Gobert had a 16p, 15r, 4b night, but was also a team-worst -18 on the plus-minus. He hasn’t been playing well last two weeks, and the Jazz are compounding the problem by refusing to get him properly involved.
Joe Johnson will remain out for another week or so, and the Jazz remain in Utah for their next three games. It’s time for someone to step up, but mostly, time for the coaching staff to remind their squad about all the fundamentals and attention to detail that helped this offensively limited team win games against much better opposition.
Miami Heat at Utah Jazz Game Trends & Prediction
Miami Heat has been a money dip to start the season, but have improved their play and are entering this game by covering in three of their last four games. It improved their ATS record to much more sustainable 3-6-2, and they enjoy this road trip for the most part. They are not very predictable when it comes to point totals – the Heat are 5-6 overall, with no significant recent trends.
The Jazz bad streak transferred to their ATS score as well, and they are now just 6-5 overall, and 5-2 at home. They’ve been allowing more points recently, so the almost-automatic under wagering would only give partial results. The Jazz are now 4-6 against the over/under, after 4 overs in the last 5 games.
Admi-Rank: This rating that teams incidentally share, was Jazz low point this season, but the recent games have been so disappointing that I can see it slipping even further. The Heat are going to bounce up and down around this NBA average, but have been playing better recently, except for the game in Oakland, one that doesn’t do much harm to their status anyway.
What I like the most about this Miami Heat team is that they are able to shapeshift. They can drop points on bad defensive sides, but can also play against stingy, hardworking halfcourt team like Jazz is (or was). This will give them a good chance to win even in an inhospitable arena, so I’m not overly surprised by the handicap set at the opening of the market.
The Jazz are only a 3-point favorite here, a spread that is set well. I’m not having anything of it, and also I don’t see the line moving much on the game day either. The recent trend of overs by both teams has forced bookies to adjust a bit, setting the totals line to a rather high 196 points. In both games last year, it was around 186 points, so it’s a full 10 point increase to that, and while you can argue that the Jazz defense isn’t the same as last year, their scoring has been hurt as well. I’m going with under points, and I might even double my bet with a first half under when that market opens up.
My Pick: (no wager on the spread here)
Total: Under 196 points (-110)
