The Utah Jazz will look to move closer to locking up the top seed in the Western Conference as they play the Portland Trail Blazers in their last regular-season game in Salt Lake City before the playoffs. The Blazers, on other hand, aim to extend their unbeaten run.
Catch this game live on Thursday, May 13, at 9:30 AM, Manila time.
HOME TEAM: Utah Jazz (50-19, 31-4 at home)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: Jordan Clarkson
- SG: Joe Ingles
- SF: Bojan Bogdanovic
- PF: Royce O’Neale
- C: Rudy Gobert
The Jazz are still stuck at 50 wins, as they just lost to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday on the road, 119-116. They will try to get over the hump this Thursday against a team that they’ve already beaten twice this season. The Jazz beat Portland on the road back in December (120-100) and again last April at home (122-103).
Utah is still in terrific form despite losing to the Warriors, as the Jazz are 5-1 straight up in their last six games, going 3-3 against the spread in that stretch. Even though they’re missing Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley Jr, who are both ruled out for the Trail Blazers game, the Jazz have managed to keep up with the competition. They’re not really severely lacking in firepower with those two out, as Jordan Clarkson and Bogdan Bogdanovic have stepped it up big time of late.
Clarkson is coming off a scintillating performance, scoring 41 points on 33 shots in the loss to the Warriors, while Bogdanovic has led the team in the past five games with an average of 28.8 points on 57.8 FG%.
The total has hit the Over in all of Utah’s last four games.
ROAD TEAM: Portland Trail Blazers (40-29, 21-13 on the road)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: Damian Lillard
- SG: CJ McCollum
- SF: Norman Powell
- PF: Robert Covington
- C: Jusuf Nurkic
With smoke coming out of his nose, Damian Lillard led his team to another win on Monday, as he scored 34 points in Portland’s 140-129 victory at home over the Houston Rockets. That stretches the Blazers’ win streak to four games. Portland hit 18 treys on 40 attempts against the Rockets.
The Blazers should keep launching those deep shots while they’re hot, especially against the Jazz, who might not have enough in their arsenal to go on a 3-point shootout with Portland. The Jazz are the top 3-point shooting team in the NBA, but they’re missing their starting backcourt. As for the Blazers, they are second overall with 15.7 threes per game. They’ve also knocked down at least 16 triples in five of their past seven games while making 42.5 3FG% in that span.
The Blazers could also get back Carmelo Anthony after a two-game absence by the forward due to an ankle problem. Portland is one of the most dependable teams on the road against the spread, as the Blazers are 21-13 ATS in games away from Moda Center this season.
PREDICTIONS:
Spread:
The Blazers stay hot and beat Utah. Take Portland to score a mild upset win as a +3.5 road underdog.
Over/Under:
The total went under in the past two meetings of Utah and Portland. The trend stops here. Take the Over 233.5
