The Utah Jazz will head out on the road to face off against the Denver Nuggets at 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday at Ball Arena. The Jazz might want some stickum for this game since the team gave up 18 turnovers on Saturday.
Last Saturday, Utah found themselves the reluctant recipients of a 126-104 punch to the gut against Phoenix. The Jazz were down 106-78 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 8 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Sunday. They put the hurt on Oklahoma City with a sharp 128-95 win. Winning is a bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 12 more assists than your opponent, as the Nuggets did.
Among those leading the charge was Nikola Jokic, who dropped a double-double on 28 points and 14 rebounds. He is on a roll when it comes to rebounds, as he’s now pulled down ten or more in the last three games he’s played.
Utah now has a losing record at 1-2. As for Denver, their victory bumped their record up to 3-0.
The Jazz are hoping to beat the odds on Monday, as the experts think they’re headed for a loss. For those looking to play the spread, keep Utah’s opponent in mind: they have a solid 7-3 record against the spread vs Denver over their last ten matchups.
The Jazz didn’t have too much breathing room in their contest against the Nuggets in their previous matchup back in April, but they still walked away with a 118-114 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Jazz since the squad won’t have the home-court advantage this time around. We’ll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Odds
Denver is a big 8-point favorite against Utah, according to the latest NBA odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Nuggets as a 7.5-point favorite.
The over/under is set at 227.5 points.
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