Utah Jazz vs. Indiana Pacers: Keys to the Game
Given the road struggles of the Indiana Pacers this season, the Utah Jazz should be able to come away with a sixth straight victory in tonight’s contest.
After a thrilling overtime victory on the road against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night, the Utah Jazz will be in for a quick turn-around as they head back home to host the Indiana Pacers tonight. Last night’s win included a special treat for Jazz fans as not only was it an exhilarating overtime victory, but Rudy Gobert also posted the first 25-point, 25-rebound game of the season.
The Stifle Tower was in full effect in every aspect of the game and had a career night in a big way. His 25-25 outing was just the 19th such instance since the year 2000.
For reference re rarity of Gobert's 25/25 night, there have been 19 such games since 00. There have been 129 50-point games in that stretch.
— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 21, 2017
While it will likely be hard for him to pull off such a performance in back-to-back outings, the Jazz will need Gobert at his best once again in the bout against the Indiana Pacers as he’ll face off against the young, but rapidly improving Myles Turner.
Turner possesses a smooth jump shot which makes him a versatile offensive player and while he’s not quite the rim protector that Gobert is, he’s working to become such as his blocks per game number of 2.4 is only slightly below Rudy’s of 2.5.
Nevertheless, overall Turner and the Pacers are having an extremely odd year this season. They’ve had moments where they’ve looked phenomenal, but have also struggled to find any semblance of consistency. With talented players in the likes of Jeff Teague, Paul George, Thaddeus Young and Myles Turner, one would expect them to be better than their 22-20 record.
Yet while Indiana boasts one of the best home records in the league at 16-5, they have been absolutely atrocious on the road where they’re just 6-15. This should bode well for the Jazz that benefit from a solid home court advantage where they’re currently 15-7 on the season.
Not to mention, the Pacers will be coming into this game after last night’s loss to the Lakers with less than 24 hours of rest and are just 1-6 in second nights of back-to-backs, whereas the Jazz are a respectable 6-4 in games without no days of rest beforehand. Thus there are plenty of indications that the Utah Jazz should be poised to come away with a solid victory against the visiting Pacers.
However, Indiana boasts plenty of talent across their roster, particularly in the likes of Paul George who is often considered a superstar and dropped a career-high 48 points the last time he was in Salt Lake City, so the Jazz will need to be at their very best if they hope to come out on top and notch their sixth straight victory.