The Utah Jazz don’t seem to have any concrete ideas on how to stop James Harden, but they will keep on trying, as they host the Houston Rockets this coming Saturday for the first time in the playoffs. Will the Jazz finally get a win? Or will Houston keep Utah winless in the series? Meanwhile, you can check out the latest odds and prices for NBA Playoffs series here.
Betting on the Houston Rockets (53-29 Regular Season)
James Harden was not going to be stopped on Wednesday in putting up another incredible performance in Game 2 of the first-round series against Utah, as the bearded superstar posted a triple-double stat line of 32 points, 10 assists, and 13 rebounds in a 118-98 home win over the Jazz. He nearly had a triple-double in Game 1, wherein he had 29 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds in 33 minutes. Houston’s outside shooting has been lethal to say the least in the playoffs. The Rockets sank 17 3-pointers in Game 1 and knocked down 15 more in Game 2. They have made at least 15 3-pointers in each of their last 11 games, dating back to the regular season. In the playoffs, they are shooting 38.6 percent from behind the arc, which is rendering Utah’s defense nearly helpless, as Houston’s spacing has been to much for the Jazz to solve and cover.
Houston is 8-2 against the spread (ATS) in its last 10 games.
Betting on the Utah Jazz (50-32 Regular Season)
Donovan Mitchell said after Game 1 loss that he’ll bounce back with a better performance in Game 2. Well, that’s not exactly what happened on Wednesday. In fact, he did worse, scoring only 11 points on 5-for-19 shooting from the floor. In the series opener, he had 19. In any case, he’ll have to make better shot selection, as he’s been shooting poorly and wasting away too many possessions. He is shooting the rock just 32.4 percent from the field in the playoffs. Ricky Rubio is shooting better than him at 42.9 percent, while Rudy Gobert has knocked down 68.8 percent of his field goal attempts. Perhaps the Jazz needs to get Gobert more involved on offense. Gobert is taking just 8.0 field goal attempts per game in the series but is leading the team with 16.5 points per game. Mitchell, on the other hand, is eating up 18.5 shots per contest. The Jazz should also start to hit their outside shots to keep in step with Houston. Utah hasn’t shot better than 26 percent from deep in any of the last two games.
Utah is 2-0 ATS in its last two home games. Even better, is that the Jazz are 21-10-1 ATS after a loss this season, covering an impressive 67.7% of the time, making them the second best (after Milwaukee) in the league in that capacity.
