Game Time: 8:30 PM ET, Saturday, April 2nd, 2022 

Venue:  Chase Center, San Francisco, California

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Jazz -2; O/U 218

Fanduel:  Spread:  Jazz -1.5; O/U 218

BetMGM:  Spread: Jazz -1.5; O/U 218

Jazz: 46-31, 5th place Western Conference

Warriors: 48-29, 4th place Western Conference

An NBA Western Conference matchup of playoff teams.  Both are struggling to get to the finish line of this season.  Both are struggling to hold off the teams beneath them in the standings.  Both are remarkably consistent on defense… but need an offensive outburst to win a game.  The Utah Jazz deserve a “3 Cheers” for making the playoffs year after year after year… for being a dark horse contender year after year after year.  The problem with the Jazz is they have never found a way to push it over the top. The Jazz have two great players in SG Donovan Mitchell and C Rudy Gobert… after that they just have a team.  That is it.  The two stars will. Never be joined by a third in free agency so the GM needs to find creative ways to keep building… however, they are always good not great… so their draft picks are not in demand.  The draft picks in the late teens early twenties every year aren’t even useful if kept in house.  What should they do?  The Golden State Warriors are the league’s most recent dynasty… that dynasty scooped 3 Championships in 4 seasons and then seemed to be done.  They weren’t.  So what Kevin Durant left to rehab on someone else’s dime… so Klay Thomspon went down and missed almost 3 seasons of play.  The truth is Golden State quickly rebuilt with great draft picks and a few simple trades.  Right now they could be a dynasty again, but they are suffering form the “aging player syndrome” with PG Steph Curry and PF Draymond Green.  Those guys will go to the Hall of Fame along with SG Klay Thompson.  They have beaten and rusty old guys to go along with exciting athletic young guys.  If they had a better center ready to go they would still be in 1st place in the West… a position they occupied for 3 months this season.  Let’s make some money off the point spread and discuss it all later.

The Utah Jazz have won 4 of their last ten games.  They went 3-7 ATS during that stretch.  The Jazz aren’t really contenders and everyone knows it.  Whispers are rising around the league that the Jazz may decide to trade Rudy and build around Donovan or trade Donovan and build around Rudy.  They can't get free agents to even look at Utah… when they do get a mid-level guy it is for 2-3 million more per year in salary than that free agent would have gone to LA or Boston or Golden State… etc.  They are sort of a great Sacramento Kings.  In their last game they beat the Los Angeles Lakers after getting 25 points from Rudy Gobert and 29 points from Donovan Mitchell… no surprises as the Lakers are terrible.  The trick for the Jazz are to beat the good teams in the West.  PG Mike Conley is a battle tested vet and SG Jordan Clarkson is a quality sixth man… the team have little else elsewhere.

The Golden State Warriors have won only 3 of their last ten games as they dropped from 2nd place in the Western Conference to 4th place.  They got jumped by the Dallas Mavericks for Pete’s Sake!  I get the Grizzlies are better… but the Mavericks?.  The problem with the Warriors is they suffered an injury to Draymond Green that hobbled them and then an injury to Steph Curry that knocked them out.  Draymond is back in the fold… as the Warriors go, Draymond is incredibly necessary to success.  But even Draymond can not over come losing Steph just as he returns.  The rest of the roster is poorly mixed… they have great individual parts both young and old.. But they have no chemistry.  SG Jordan Poole and Sf Jonathan Kuminga are a tomorrow is great proposition.  SG Klay Thompson and PF Otto Porter Jr are a yesterday is great proposition.  The whole team needs Steph back to find out what they have. 

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Utah is 46-31 on the season, but 31-43-3 ATS.  They have logged 35 Overs, 40 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 19-20 on the road.

The Warriors are 48-29 on the season, but 37-36-4 ATS.  They have notched 33 Overs, 42 Unders, and 2 Push.  They are a dominant 29-10 in home games.

The Jazz are 7th in scoring with 113.4 ppg, 5th in rebounds with 45.9 per game, and 27th in AST/To ratio with 1.6.  On defense they rank 10th while holding opponents to 107.8 ppg.

The Warriors are 14th in scoring with 110.7 ppg, 7th in rebounds with 45.5 per game, and 12th in AST/To ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 5th while holding opponents to 105.7 ppg.

Our prediction for Saturday, April 2nd is…. Warriors 121 - Jazz 113

The Warriors will reclaim their winning ways against the Jazz.  It shouldn’t be hard the Jazz are struggling and the Warriors are better or deeper on most of the rosters. If not for a win against the Lakers the jazz would be on a 6-game losing streak. PF Draymond Green has been very chippy lately and the Warriors will feed off of that.

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8 of 10 games in this series have gone Over the last 3 seasons.
Golden State is `13-4 ATS revenging a road loss vs opponent this season.
Utah is a low 3-13 ATS after 2 consecutive Unders this season.

Jazz: C Hassan Whiteside (foot) Quest ** C Udoka Azubuike (ankle) Out

Warriors: PG Stephen Curry (foot) Out ** C James Wiseman (knee) Out

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

Warriors: SF Andrew Wiggins, PF Draymond Green, C Kevon Looney, SG Jordan Poole, PG Klay Thompson

Jazz: Quin Snyder

Warriors: Steve Kerr