Utah Jazz at Denver Nuggets 8/19/20: NBA Basketball free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-08-19 16:00:00 EDT
The Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets meet Wednesday in game two of NBA playoff action at the AdventHealth Arena.
The Utah Jazz need a bounce back showing here to even up the series at 1-1. The Utah Jazz are averaging 125 points on 47.4 percent shooting and allowing 135 points on 51.6 percent shooting. Donovan Mitchell is averaging 57 points and seven assists while Joe Ingles is averaging 19 points and five rebounds. Jordan Clarkson is the third double-digit scorer and Rudy Gobert is grabbing seven rebounds. The Utah Jazz are shooting 34 percent from beyond the arc and 73.9 percent from the free thitem line. The Utah Jazz are allowing 53.7 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 52 rebounds per game.
The Denver Nuggets look for another win to take a solid 2-0 series lead. The Denver Nuggets are averaging 135 points on 51.6 percent shooting and allowing 125 points on 47.4 percent shooting. Jamal Murray is averaging 36 points and nine assists while Nikola Jokic is averaging 29 points and 10 rebounds. Jerami Grant is the third double-digit scorer and Monte Morris is grabbing three rebounds. The Denver Nuggets are shooting 53.7 percent from beyond the arc and 83.3 percent from the free thitem line. The Denver Nuggets are allowing 34 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 41 rebounds per game.
The Jazz are 9-3 ATS in their last 12 games as an underdog, 3-7-1 ATS in their last 11 games playing on 1 days rest and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 Conference Quarterfinals games. The Nuggets are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games following a straight up win, 4-11 ATS in their last 15 Conference Quarterfinals games and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games following a ATS win. The over is 6-1 in Jazz last 7 overall. The over is 19-6-1 in Nuggets last 26 overall. The Jazz are 1-8 ATS in the last 9 meetings in Denver and 0-4 ATS in the last 4 meetings.
The Utah Jazz had their chances to win game one and probably do if they didn’t turn the ball over left and right down the stretch. Gobert is capable of playing better than he did in the game one loss and the Jazz are also better defensively than what they showed. The Nuggets are obviously the better team here, but they played a near perfect contest and still almost lost. While you don’t want to waste a 57-point performance from Mitchell, the Jazz should feel decent about their chances heading into game two. I’ll take the points with the Jazz.
