Phoenix Suns at Utah Jazz 12/31/20: NBA Basketball free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-12-31 21:00:00 EDT
The Utah Jazz play host to the Phoenix Suns at the Vivint Smart Home Arena on Thursday night.
The Phoenix Suns have begun the season in decent form as they’ve won three of their first four games and they will be aiming for a third straight win after blowing past the Pelicans in a 111-86 home win on Tuesday. Jae Citemder led the team with 21 points on six of 11 shooting, Cameron Johnson added 18 points while DeAndre Ayton chipped in with 13 points and 12 rebounds. As a team, the Suns shot 44 percent from the field and 19 of 47 from the 3-point line as they dominated the second quarter by 35-15 to take a 22-point lead going into halftime, before making it a complete blowout in the third quarter where they pushed the lead out to 40 points.
Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz have won two of their first three games of the season and they will be looking to build on Monday’s 110-109 road win at Oklahoma City. Bojan Bogdanovic drained five 3-pointers to lead the team with 23 points, Mike Conley racked up 20 points with 10 rebounds and nine assists, Donovan Mitchell scored 20 points on eight of 23 shooting while Rudy Gobert chipped in with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. As a team, the Jazz shot 50 percent from the field and 13 of 36 from the 3-point line but they really had to scrap till the end as they escaped on the game-winning layup from Mitchell with just 7 seconds left.
Looking at the betting trends, the Suns are 5-1 ATS in their last six road games, 11-1 ATS in their last 12 games against a team with a winning record and 13-3 ATS in their last 16 games overall. The Jazz are 3-10-1 ATS in their last 14 home games, 0-3-1 ATS in their last four games against a team with a winning record and 1-5-1 ATS in their last seven games overall.
Head to head, the under is 6-2 in the last eight meetings overall, the Suns are 2-5 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and the Suns are 4-10-1 ATS in the last 15 meetings in Utah.
The Jazz have been building nicely this season, but they were far from convincing in their naritem win over the struggling Thunder in their last outing. The Suns have been in fine form with three wins out of four and they were dominant in their blowout win over the Pelicans which allowed them to rest their starters early. This is a tough one to pick as you could make an argument for either side here, but I’m taking the Suns with the points in what should be a close one.
