Utah Jazz at New York Knicks: Keys to the Game

As the Utah Jazz begin a five-game road slate against the New York Knicks on Sunday, these are some key areas where they’ll have to execute if they hope to start the trip on a high note.

Six games into the season the Utah Jazz now sit at a respectable 3-3 which includes a 1-2 road record. Surprisingly, that lone road victory came over the San Antonio Spurs where Utah hadn’t won in their last ten tries.

Although the Jazz, as our very own Hayden Van de Maat wrote yesterday, had hoped to be able to springboard into their upcoming five-game road trip with an exclamation point win over the Spurs on Friday night, instead a daunting San Antonio team came into Vivint Arena and exacted swift revenge on the Jazz for the previous loss.

Therefore, instead of heading on the five-game trip with an abundance of confidence, the Jazz will be looking to right the ship once more as they take on the New York Knicks in an early Sunday matinee game which will tip-off at 10:00 AM MT.

The Knicks have had their own struggles so far this season, being blown out by the Cavs, Pistons and Rockets, but they’re also coming off a big win on the road over the Chicago Bulls, the former team of current Knicks Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. With an additional win over the Grizzlies in their second contest of the year, New York sits at 2-3 and figures to be a fringe playoff team.

While there’s still no telling how this team is actually going to end up fitting together, there is undoubtedly a lot of talent on the squad in the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, Courtney Lee, Brandon Jennings and the aforementioned Rose and Noah. Not to mention they are led by a former Jazz favorite in head coach Jeff Hornacek.

And while the Knicks certainly present some match-up challenges, I do believe that overall the Utah Jazz are a better team. Nevertheless the first game of a road trip typically is a bit tough and the early start time doesn’t help either, so the Jazz will have to be in top form to take care of business and notch their second road win of the season.

Key Match-up – Derrick Favors and Kristaps Porzingis

Although Carmelo Anthony is the Knicks’ best player and leading scorer at 21.8 points per game, second-year phenomenon Kristaps Porzingis is New York’s wild card. He’s a special player capable of making impressive plays and breaking out for big games at any time.

He has a solid mid-range game and is currently one of the leading three-point shooters on the team, draining two threes a game at a scorching 43.5 percent clip. He’s also a capable post defender who has posted 1.2 blocks per game so far this year.

Needless to say, Derrick Favors is going to have his hands full on both ends of the court. Favors has gotten better at defending stretch-fours, but it’s still clearly not where he’s most comfortable. He will have to stay with Porzingis all the way out to the three-point line if the Jazz hope to neutralize him as a threat.

On the offensive end, Favors is due for a bounce-back game after four straight lackluster performances and Utah will need him to have just that if they’re to come away victorious. He has a clear advantage over Porzingis in strength and post moves but he will need to execute much better than he has of late.

D-Faves has also struggled to find his mid-range shot so far. If he really wants to challenge Porzingis and space out the floor for his teammates, Utah will have to hope that he can find his 15-foot jumper as it opens up his game and turns him into a more versatile offensive threat.

Key Stat – Assists

The Knicks have done a commendable job so far moving the ball in Jeff Hornacek’s offense as they currently are averaging a decent 21.8 assists as a team per game. Ironically, however, the Knicks’ D is also giving up that exact same amount to their opponents on the year.

To have success against New York, the Jazz will need to disrupt their flow on offense and prevent assists for easy baskets as much as possible. On the flip side of that, the Jazz will need to take advantage of the Knicks’ shaky defense and move the ball to create good looks of their own.

The Jazz should be able to find success in both those aspects as New York’s defense is currently ranked 25th in the league, giving up 109 points per game. Utah meanwhile has boasted a stalwart defense that ranks second in the league at just 93.7 opponent points per game.

But the Jazz will need to significantly step up their assist numbers if they are to outperform the Knicks in this area. Although Utah’s ball movement and assist numbers were superb in the win over San Antonio, through six games the Jazz are tied for 28th in the league in assists with just 17.7 per game.

Part of this has to do with Utah’s slower, more methodical pace, but against a weak defense such as the Knicks’, if Utah can create some easy looks and win the assist battle, they’ll be in a great position to emerge victorious.

Key Performer – George Hill

It’s sort of surprising that the Knicks’ defense is as poor as it is when they have some decent defenders throughout their starting lineup. But the one position where they particularly struggle on defense is at the point guard spot.

Neither Derrick Rose nor back-up point guard Brandon Jennings are known for their abilities on that end of the floor. So far this season, Rose and Jennings have both posted terrible defensive ratings of 111.6 and 113. 8, respectively.

Against weaker defenders such as these, I expect George Hill to have a field day.

Hill did struggle somewhat in Friday’s loss to the Spurs as he found himself in quick foul trouble and it was evident that San Antonio had made fitting adjustments to deal with him in the rematch. After the show that he had put up in the first win over the Spurs, you can bet that Coach Pop and his team of relentless defenders weren’t about to let that happen again.

But with the need for a bounce-back game and with a less than formidable defense in his way, I expect George Hill to get back to his solid offensive ways that we’ve largely seen this season and lead the Jazz in scoring en route to a victory.

Prediction – Jazz 102, Knicks 93

This one is a bit of a mystery as we have yet to see how this Jazz team can perform in tough road match-ups. However, Utah has more depth and with both teams coming into this game with the same amount of rest, I see no reason why the Jazz can’t come out on top.

The early game start could cast a weird feel on the game and Utah will definitely need to avoid a sluggish start. If the Knicks get hot in the early goings, the Jazz could find themselves quickly behind the eight ball if they aren’t able to respond with some scoring of their own.

Nevertheless, this Knicks team is much less daunting of an opponent than at least three of the opponents the Jazz have faced so far – the Clippers, Spurs and Blazers (and perhaps more than that – the Lakers have looked pretty good especially with last night’s win over Golden State and I still think Dallas is better than their winless record indicates).

In other words, if Utah can handle the Spurs’ defense, the Clippers’ offense and the Blazers’ hot three-point shooting, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to stop the Knicks as long as they come out with energy, win the assist battle and do at least a decent job of containing the likes of Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony.

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With the exception of the loss to San Antonio, the Jazz have shown improvement and better cohesion in each of their games so far this season, so as long as that positive trend continues, I’m going to change my pick from earlier in the week and predict a solid 102-93 win for the Jazz on the road.

These extended road trips have been brutal to the Jazz in recent years so starting on a high note against a Knicks team that is still searching for its identity would be a great boost for this Jazz team for the rest of the five-game slate.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com and ESPN.com