It’s round two of the season series. The Utah Jazz won the first meeting, 112-107, led by three of their starters scoring 20 or more points.

HOME TEAM: Dallas Mavericks (32-21, 14-13 at home)

The Mavericks enter the contest with a rocky 3-4 record in their last seven games, with two of the losses coming from teams below the .500 mark. They are also minus 0.5 (114.4 PPG to 114.9 PAPG) and shoot just 44.8% in that span.

Adding to the concern is the absence of their two superstars – Luka Doncic, who remains questionable due to an ankle injury, and Kristaps Porzingis, who missed Sunday’s game and is listed as a game-time decision for tomorrow. Should Porzingis be available, he should put up numbers. He’s averaging 25.7 points and 12.5 rebounds in eight games playing without Luka this season.

Helping out the Mavs big man are Tim Hardaway Jr. (14.3 PPG), the team’s most consistent third scorer and Seth Curry, one of the bench mob’s best shooters. Curry is also on the heels of a 26-point performance.

The loss to Utah last January 26th is despite starting off with a 36-point first quarter. The play faltered and the team ended up going just 2-for-9 in the last four minutes of the final period. It should be enough to motivate the team for a revenge game.

ROAD TEAM: Utah Jazz (34-18, 15-13 on the road)

Tomorrow will be on the second night of a back-to-back but the Jazz are coming in all hyped up. They are coming off a thrilling 114-113 win over the Houston Rockets, where Bojan Bogdanovic hit an off-balanced three as time expired. Utah now has two-straight victories following a five-game skid.

Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert, three of the team’s top scorers all scored 20-plus in the win against the Mavs in late January.  It was Gobert that had the most impressive stat line, though, as he tallied a dominating 22 points, 17 rebounds, and five blocks on a spotless 8-for-8 shooting.

The big man is poised to have a repeat performance if Porzingis is out again, as well as Mitchell and Bogdanovic (21.1 PPG), who are in a favourable match-up against the Mavs’ guards.

Sixth-man Jordan Clarkson is also deserving of a mention. Now acting as the team’s spark plug, he poured in 30 points on 12-for-19 shooting in the win against the Rockets (21.3 PPG in his last six).

PREDICTION:

Fatigue may be a factor for Utah, but the Mavs are weirdly inconsistent at home and both of their stars could be out, so I expect the Jazz to take the win, 112-106. Look for Gobert to control the paint.