Order has been restored in the Spurs camp following two dominant wins over the Mavericks and Kings. We finally saw glimpses of the team that went to the NBA Finals just 4 months ago, San Antonio really struggled out of the game losing those two opening games. Wemby and co. are once again massive favorites, this time in Salt Lake City against the shorthanded Utah Jazz. They’ve won the last two regular season series against this team, the two wins recorded last season were both by a comfortable double-digit margin. Despite the back-to-back wins, San Antonio cannot afford to relax here. They’ve dropped off quite a bit defensively, ranking 29th in opponent three-point percentage. Last season they were 5th in the NBA in this area of play.
The good news for San Antonio is the fact that Utah ranks only 19th in terms of efficiency from three-point land through the first four games. The injury bug has hit them hard, Jaren Jackson Jr. will be out for at least a month with his knee injury. We still don’t know the status of Lauri Markkanen and Jaxson Hayes ahead of Wednesday’s game, but losing either of those two would be troublesome ahead of a game vs Wemby. Last season the Jazz couldn’t do much against the Frenchman, allowing an average of 30.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. It’ll be up to Keyonte George to keep his team alive here, he’s had an encouraging start to the season, but facing a team like San Antonio will be harder than any of the four opponents he’s seen so far.
Normally I am not a fan of backing teams to cover huge margins when playing on a 2nd night of a back-to-back, but the Spurs have looked brilliant in their last two wins, beating the Mavs by 16 and the Kings by 27 points respectively. They outmatch the shorthanded Jazz at almost every position; head coach Will Hardy will have to figure things out on the fly with so many key players out. I’ll take San Antonio to cover and win a 3rd game in a row here.
Spurs vs Jazz Predictions: Spurs -12.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
