This year, the Jazz have been impressive by far the best team in the entire league during the regular season. Of course, things were very different in Game 1 of the series against Memphis for the 1st round of this year’s playoffs. A painful defeat for Utah at home (109-112) by a young and talented Grizzlies squad that seems ready to shock the basketball world and kick out the favourite of the series (to be decided in four wins).
Dillon Brooks (31 points), Ja Morant (26 points) and Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas (15 points, 12 minutes) led the winners. Utah played the first game without their leader Donovan Mitchell. He missed every game since April 16th and his absence is more than evident; 26.4 points, 5.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds are his statistics this season. However, Mitchell is expected to play in Game 2, and this will be a game-changer. Bojan Bogdanovic (29 points), Mike Conley (22 points), Rudy Gobert (11 points, 15 rebounds) and Derrick Favors (12 points, 11 rebounds) stood out for the Jazz during the first game. Jordan Clarkson, who received the award of “6th best player” of the season, flew relatively low (14 points).
Our prediction: Utah Jazz -7.5