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Utah Jazz look to turn up the Heat in Miami

First game of the December gauntlet, third game of a road trip. Can the Jazz beat the heat?

NBA: Utah Jazz at Miami Heat Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Jazz (11-12) are continuing their east coast road trip tonight against the Miami Heat (8-13), having gone (2-0) against the Nets and Hornets so far. Miami has looked like a middling Eastern conference team for the first 10 games of the season, going (5-5), but injury issues and inconsistent play has dropped them to mid-lottery / purgatory status. They’re coming off of a surprising win against the Pelicans and Anthony Davis, with six of the nine players in the rotation in double digits, lead by Josh Richardson’s 20 points and Bam Adebayo’s 8p/11r off of the bench.

The Jazz won a great game against the Hornets on fantastic outside shooting (18/40, or 45%), with the re-addition of Kyle Korver pouring in 4 threes on 6 attempts. The Jazz offense looked much more alive in spite of Joe Ingles’ foul trouble. Derrick Favors unfortunately only logged 19 minutes, and poor Dante Exum got his first DNP-CD of the season in an offense-focused game. With that in mind, it is very interesting see Quin’s minutes distribution in the game:

We’ll see how the Heat’s guard line up affects these rotations tonight (more on that below).


Game Info

When: 4:00 PM MT • Sunday, December 2, 2018

Where: AmericanAirlines Arena • Miami, FL

TV: AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain, Fox Sports Sun

Radio: 1280AM/97.5 FM The Zone, 790 The Ticket / S: WAQI 710 AM

Injuries:

Utah Jazz:

None!

Miami Heat:

Goran Dragic — Knee — OUT

Tyler Johnson — Right Hamstring — OUT

Dion Waiters — Ankle — OUT

Derrick Jones Jr. — Hamstring — OUT


What to watch for

The Miami Guard Rotation

Miami is undergoing some major injury issues at the guard positions, with their entire regular point guard rotation out. Look for a glut of converted shooting guards to take the floor, with Wayne Ellington to start at Point Guard, Rodney McGruder at Shooting Guard, and Josh Richardson at Small Forward. With Dwyane Wade the only reserve guard, Richardson will undoubtedly spend significant time at the two, but the Jazz will need to exploit the shallowness of the bench and run them out of the building.

Hassan Whiteside

Remember the season where Hassan Whiteside lead the NBA in blocks and Rudy vs Hassan was an (illegitimate) argument that people had? Whiteside has played in 20 of Miami’s 21 games, but is only averaging 26.6 minutes. Sometimes he looks like a monster, going off for 29 points and 20 rebounds against the Spurs on November 7th, and 21 points and 23 rebounds against the Nets on November 20th. But he’s also had duds of games (2p/5r/1b against the Raptors, 6p/7r/3b against the Lakers). Which Hassan Whiteside will we see tonight?