The Hive Sports

by Alma Bean

Feature Image by Chris Szagola of the Associated Press

The Utah Jazz (22-21) starts their six-game road trip against the Houston Rockets (19-21) as they look to get back to their winning ways.

What to Look For

Coming into this game, both teams are looking for some form of redemption. After Houston has lost five of their last six games, they’re trying to show that their record does not reflect the talent on team. Utah taking a devastating loss on Thursday to end their six-game winning streak, Utah is looking to show that they’re still a team that should be feared.

This game will be the battle of the Europeans. Houston with the promising young talent of Alperen Sengun and Utah has their All-Star in Lauri Markkanen. Sengun is currently having a career year as has hit career-highs in points per game (21.5), rebounds (9.0), assists (4.9) and steals (1.2). Markkanen is nearly mimicking his All-Star season last year as the All-Star break approaches. Houston needs to keep an eye on is Markkanen’s perimeter shooting. In the month of January, Markkanen is shooting 6.7 three-point shots per game and making 47.8 percent of them putting him 12th in the league in three-point percentage with at least 40 attempts.

Key of the Game

Ball movement. Even though Utah is ahead of Houston in a majority of statistical categories, assists and turnovers will be interesting to watch in this one. As a team, Houston gets 24.7 assists and 12.4 turnovers giving them an AST/TO ratio just shy of 2.0. Much of this should be credited to Fred VanVleet, who is averaging 8.6 assists and 1.6 turnovers giving him an AST/TO ratio of 5.4. Without VanVleet’s production, Houston’s AST/TO ratio drops to 1.5.

Though Utah doesn’t have an assisting savant like VanVleet, but Utah has been facilitating the ball evenly making them more dangerous. For comparison, Utah has six players that average 4.0+ assists per game while Houston has two in that category. For the month of January, Collin Sexton has stretched his court vision averaging 5.3 assists per game while holding an AST/TO ratio of 2.9. Even Kris Dunn, who is looking to turnaround his career since being added to the starting lineup, has been leading the way with a pass-first mentality. Dunn for the month of January is averaging 5.3 assists per game with an AST/TO ratio of 4.1.

Injury Report

Houston – Reggie Bullock Jr. (back) Questionable, Tari Eason (leg) Out, Victor Oladipo (knee) Out

Utah – Taylor Hendricks (G League) Out, Johnny Juzang (G League) Out, Micah Potter (G League) Out, Jason Preston (G League) Out, Brice Sensabaugh (G League) Out

Where to Watch

Tip-off will be at 6:00 p.m. MST on KJZZ and Jazz+.