by Alma Bean
Feature Image: Photo by Michael Reaves of Getty Images
The Utah Jazz (20-23) travels home to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers (26-15) in Donovan Mitchell‘s return to Salt Lake City.
What to Look For
Utah will be on one of their easiest stretches of games this season starting Tuesday. They will play 11 of their next 13 games at home with nine of those teams being at or below .500. With Utah being third in the league in PPG (117.6), they may face a brick wall with Cleveland as they are first in the league in the least points allowed per game (106.6). Cleveland is third in the league with a points differential at +4.9 PPG while Utah is at +0.6 PPG. After an impressive performance on defense from rookie Walker Kessler last game with six blocks, another rookie may be able to shine against Cleveland. Ochai Agbaji has been able to see meaningful minutes with injuries to the Utah bench like Collin Sexton. In the last three games, Agbaji has played he has averaged 10PPG while reaching his career-high with 19 points against the Chicago Bulls.
Keys for the Game
Mitchell will score his points, it’s a matter of how to limit how many he will get. Utah fans will be reliving memories of Mitchell in a Jazz uniform. Mitchell is averaging 28.8 PPG this along with hitting his career-high of 71 points a little over a week ago. Forcing Mitchell and Cleveland to defend the perimeter may work in Utah’s favor. Cleveland has allowed the second-highest three-point percentage in the league at 37 percent. Utah is in the top 10 in the league in opponent’s three-point percentage at 35.1 percent.
Injury Report
Cleveland- Ricky Rubio: Out (knee), Dean Wade: Out (shoulder), Dylan Windler: Out (ankle)
Utah- Udoka Azubuike: Out (health & safety protocols), Leandro Bolmaro: Out (illness), Talen Horton-Tucker: Out (ankle), Kelly Olynyk: Out (ankle), Collin Sexton: Out (hamstring)
Where to Watch?
Mitchell’s homecoming will tip off at 7:00 p.m. MT on AT&T SportsNet.
The Hive Sports 
Leave a Reply