Jazz set to take on the defending champion Bucks

Fresh off of a win versus the Sacramento Kings, the Utah Jazz will remain at home and have a different kind of challenge come to town. The challenge: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks.

The Jazz enters the game sitting at 4th in the West with the Dallas Mavericks breathing down their neck for home-court advantage. In fact, the Mavs are only a half a game behind the Jazz and they have the night off, so if the Jazz drop tonight's game Dallas will have officially tied them at 42-26. If the Jazz can win, they will go a full game up on Dallas.

Speaking of similar records, the Bucks are currently 42-26 and are clinging to 3rd in the East with the Bulls only a half-game behind them. Needless to say, coming down the home stretch of the regular season every game matters for playoff seeding, and tonight’s matchup between the Jazz and the Bucks will be big for both teams.

This will be the Bucks and Jazz's first meeting in Utah this season, but they did play in Milwaukee back on Halloween day. The Jazz easily got the win 107-95, but make no mistake, the game tonight will look very different.

On Halloween day the Bucks were missing Khris Middleton to an illness and Jrue Holliday to an early-season injury. The Bucks have everyone noteworthy healthy for tonight’s game while the Jazz have some players questionable for the game. Bojan Bogdanovic and Trent Forrest are both listed as day-to-day and did not participate in today’s shoot-around with the team. Rudy Gobert is also listed as Day-to-Day, but it was not noted if he participated in shoot-around or not.

Jordan Clarkson is coming off a 45-point performance, so it would go a long way for the Jazz if he could stay hot especially if they are going to be missing any players listed as questionable.

Time will tell who suits up for the game tonight and which team stretches their lead in the respective conference standings. The game is being broadcast on ESPN tonight at 8 PM.