10:40 pm
December 25

Mavericks @ Jazz

Who will WIN this matchup?

Dallas Mavericks (15-16)

@ Utah Jazz (22-9)

 

Current odds:

Dallas Mavericks: (+650)

Utah Jazz: (-1000)

 

• The line for this game is Jazz by 13.5 points.

• The Utah Jazz-Dallas Mavericks game is not quite the matchup the NBA envisioned for Christmas Day when the league scheduled the Western Conference teams for the final game of the holiday lineup.

• Though the Jazz will be at full strength, the Mavericks will be far from it when they square off Saturday night at Salt Lake City.

• Dallas will be without at least nine players. Seven are out due to COVID-19 protocols — Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock, Trey Burke, JaQuori McLaughlin and Josh Green. On top of that, the Mavs won’t have Eugene Omoruyi (foot) or Willie Cauley-Stein (personal since Nov. 27) either. Oh, and Kristaps Porzingis is questionable after having missed the past two games with a sore right foot.

• One of those players is Marquese Chriss, who signed with the Mavericks ahead of the game in Utah. Instead of spending his first Christmas at home with his family since his high school days, Chriss will be playing thanks to the league’s hardship allowance that enables COVID-19-afflicted teams to sign emergency players.

• The Mavs also recently signed Brandon Knight, Carlik Jones, Theo Pinson, George King and Charlie Brown Jr. to fill in for missing players.

• Chriss scored 13 points in his Dallas debut Thursday, a closer-than-expected 102-95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

• That same night, the Jazz defeated Minnesota, which had seven players (including four starters) in NBA’s health and safety protocols. Utah was just happy to get a win in a game against a number of Wolves fill-in players. Donovan Mitchell scored 28, while Gobert contributed 20 points and 17 rebounds in the 128-116 victory.

• This is the second year in a row the Mavericks are on the Christmas slate — they lost to the Lakers, 138-115 — while Utah is back after blowing out Portland 117-96 in 2018.

8/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
Utah Jazz
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