As one of the biggest surprises teams of the 2016-17 campaign, the Jazz closed out their regular season at an even better rhythm. They went 7-2 in their last nine games (6-3-1 ATS), and in that span, they put up 104 PPG on 49.1 percent shooting.
It may help them have some much-needed confidence in this playoff series, especially since they lost three of their four games against the Clippers this season.
We should see the versatile Gordon Hayward (21.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 3.5 APG) and underrated point guard George Hill (16.9 PPG, 4.1 APG), who had a career year despite being injury-plagued, deliver the goods for Utah. However, there’s zero doubt their towering big man Rudy Gobert’s (14 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 2.6 BG) matchup with DeAndre Jordan is, by far, the most fascinating.
The Jazz are the best scoring defense (96.8 PPG) in the league and they are third in defensive efficiency.
The Clippers ended the regular season winning seven straight and 11 of their last 13. They won by an average of 13.1 points in that stretch, while also shooting 50.1 percent from the field.
However, if you followed the season close enough, you’d know that they usually go in some funk after good winning streaks. Through the inconsistency, fourth quarter collapses like this one, and the recent playoff failures, no one can be really sure what Clipps team is going to show up every night.
Should the “good” Clippers squad take the stage for Game 1, though. We may see them easily come out on top. As said, they won this year’s head-to-head matchup with the Jazz, 3-1, and they won those contests by 13 or more points.
Also, considering that they can play at any speed, thanks to having an elite guard like Chris Paul, they will have no controlling the pace of the game.
Writer’s Prediction
The Clippers’ (-5.5) experience will help them prevail, 103-99, but they will barely fail in covering the spread.
