In Tuesday's seven-game NBA schedule, the
Utah Jazz and
Boston Celtics will face each other in a matchup where the home team will host the team with the best record in the league, which will also be playing its second night of back-to-back games. The stars of both teams will be
Jayson Tatum and Collin Sexton, with Lauri Markkanen out for Utah.
The Celtics, as mentioned above, will play their second game in two nights after beating the Portland Trail Blazers without too much trouble. The Massachusetts franchise will play as visitors, and will do so with a 50-14 record, the first team in the entire NBA to reach 50 wins this season. As against the Blazers, they will be without Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
The Jazz, meanwhile, are far from the playoff positions in the Western Conference. The Salt Lake City team is 12th with a 28-36 record, and Golden State Warriors, a borderline franchise, is 10th at 34-30. With nothing to fight for this season, gifting a win against the NBA's best team to their fans is one of the highest aspirations Utah can have right now.
Experts' predictions (Possible quintets and result).
The main predictions for tonight's game place Boston Cetics as the favorite to win. However, they are at the end of their Western tour and on the second night of back-to-back, so fatigue could play a trick on them that Utah Jazz could take advantage of.
In addition, the potential quintets will be as follows:
- Jazz: Collin Sexton, Keyonte George, Brice Sensabaugh, John Collins, Walker Kessler.
- Celtics: Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford.
Schedule and TV.
The game will be played this morning at 9:30 p.m. ET Time, and can be followed on the NBA's official website and app with a League Pass subscription.
Downs
- Jazz: Lauri Markkanen (quadriceps) and Taylor Hendricks (toe) ruled out.
- Celtics: Kristaps Porzingis (hamstring), Jrue Holiday (knee) and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (personal reasons) ruled out.