Game Time: 9:00 PM ET, Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 

Venue:   Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah 

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Jazz -5; O/U 221

Fanduel:  Spread:  Jazz -5

BetMGM:  Spread: Jazz -4.5; O/U 221/5

Grizzlies: 55-23, 2nd place Western Conference

Jazz: 46-32, 6th place Western Conference

An NBA Western Conference matchup between playoff bound teams.  They will both make the playoffs, but they are playing at wildly different levels.  The Memphis Grizzlies are the second best team in basketball by the numbers.  They would be Finals favorites if the Suns were not in the Western Conference.  The Grizzlies have everything going for them right now.  Their absolute best player and star PG Ja Morant went down with an injury that will not hold him out for the playoffs… and the team has kept on winning.  Why?  Because their depth and roster as a whole are amazing.  The Grizzlies are young, but ready to do it all.  SG Desmond Bane has simply become a substitute star in the absence of Ja Morant.  SG Dillon Brooks returned from a long injury absence and was immediately moved to small forward… Where he has also become an instant star.  PF Jaren Jackson Jr and C Steven Adams are a top notch front line that can get some points and play a lot of intimidating defense.  The key to it all may be backup PG Tyus Jones… earlier dubbed the best backup point guard in the NBA… Tyus has spent the last month completely proving the title.  Ja will return, Tyus will go back to the bench… but he is massive trade bait this offseason… The Grizzlies have a bright present and a bright future.  The Utah Jazz just hung around.  They have been clinging to any random playoff spot all year… sometimes they rank 3rd, sometimes 4th, sometimes 5th… and now 6th.  At the moment the Jazz are 1.5 games ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves with only 4 games to go.  The math says they have an equal chance to be in the play-in game as they do to be the 6th seed with a guaranteed spot.  The team relies almost entirely on SG Donovan Mitchell for offense and C Rudy Gobert for defense… everyone else is interchangeable.  The rest of the squad is made of random vets that could be exchanged with many other random vets around the league for the same results.  The Jazz will make the playoffs before getting stomped by a better team in the playoffs.  

The Memphis Grizzlies have won 9 of their last ten games!  They are on a 7-game winning streak.  They went 7-3 ATS during the ten game stretch.  They win games… AND they cover spreads.  The lone team to beat them was the Atlanta Hawks.  Atlanta is not special, but they do matchup well with the Grizzlies because of the shooting and near mirror image of the Grizzlies on the frontline. Atlanta has PF Danillo Gallinari and C Clint Capela. Those two guys are not as good as Jackson and Adams but their strengths fit perfectly against what Memphis has… Plus Atlanta got an insane 5 of 6 from the 3-point line from Bogdon Bogdanovic… If you gave me ten matchups between the Grizz and the Hawks, I would bet the Grizz every time and be right 8 times at least.  The Grizzlies have nothing to prove against the Jazz, but will not care… right now they are having fun scoring points and winning games.  They will not let their foot off the gas now.

The Utah Jazz have won only 4 of their last ten games.  They went 3-7 ATS during that spread.  Over the last 5 games they are only 1-4… with 0-5 ATS.  They are in a hard funk.  They lost their last game to the Golden State Warriors which is bad… The Warriors have a good team but have been playing like trash for almost a solid month.  Utah gave up 36 points to SG Klay Thompson and 31 points to PG Jordan Poole…. For Utah PG Mike Conley had 26 points and SG Donovan Mitchell had 26 points… 67 points from starting guards is way better than 52 points from starting guards… and that was the tale of the tape.  Utah got outplayed by better scorers.  The Grizzlies have many better scorers than the Jazz. That should not be a knock on bench scorer SG/PG Jordan Clarkson for the Jazz… he does have the ability to break off 25 points in a good game… he just hasn’t had many good games as of late.

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Memphis is 55-23 on the season, but 51-27 ATS.  They have logged 40 Overs, 37 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 26-13 on the road.

Utah is 46-32 on the season, but 31-44-3 ATS.  They have notched 35 Overs, 41 Unders, and 2 Push.  They are 27-11 in home games.  This team plays drastically better at home than on the road.

Memphis is 2nd in scoring with 115.4 ppg, 1st in rebounds with 49.4 per game, and 5th in AST/TO ratio with 2.0.  On defense they rank 12th while allowing 109.2 ppg from opponents.

Utah is 7th in scoring with 113.4 ppg, 5th in rebounds with 45.9, and 28th in AST/TO ratio with 1.6.  On defense they rank 10th while holding opponents to 107.9 ppg. 

Our prediction for Tuesday, April 5th is….  Grizzlies 122 - Utah 110

The Grizzlies will lead from wire to wire.  As we have watched the Jazz fold over the last ten games… we have seen Donovan Mitchell forcing the issue to try and will some wins… the result is poor.  The Grizzlies do not have to force the issue to get offense… they just score. The Grizzlies chose to rest stars in their last game against the Phoenix Suns.  The Grizzlies won anyway.  The Grizzlies are too deep.

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Memphis is 18-7 ATS after 3 or more consecutive wins this season.
Utah is 21-9 ATS after failing to cover 6 o7 of their last 8 spreads the last 3 seasons.
11 of 14 games between these teams have gone OVER the last 3 seasons.
7 of 7 games in this series have Gone over at Utah the last 3 seasons.

Grizzlies: PG Ja Morant (knee) Out

Jazz: C Udoh Azubuike (ankle) Out

Grizzlies:  PF Kyle Anderson, SF Dillon Brooks, C Xavier Tillman, SG De”Anthony Melton, PG Ziaire Willaims.

Jazz: PF Royce O’Neale, SF Bojan Bogdanovic, C Rudy Gobert, SG Donovan Mitchell, PG Mike Conley

Grizzlies: Taylor Jenkins

Jazz: Quin Snyder