The Memphis Grizzlies (0-4) will continue their search for the first win of the new NBA season on Wednesday night with a road outing against the Utah Jazz (1-3) at the Delta Center.
Bookmaker BetOnline sees this as a tight battle between two relatively evenly matched sides. The Jazz is a 1.5-point favorite for the contest, with the odds at -115 for the hosts to beat the spread, and the odds are at -105 for the Grizzlies to cover the 1.5-point spread.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 31st, 5:00 P.M. (EST)
Following the arrival of Marcus Smart via a big trade with the Celtics, there was a lot of excitement in Memphis in the off-season, but the team’s performance has been below par early in the year, with a few key pieces missing from the lineup. Ja Morant is serving a 25-game suspension at the start of the campaign and Steven Adams has been ruled out for the entire season with a knee problem.
Smart has had a good start at his new club, scoring 17.3 points per game and picking up 5.5 rebounds with 5.8 assists and 3.0 steals. But he hasn’t received much support offensively, which has left Memphis sitting sixth from bottom in offensive efficiency. Morant’s return really can’t come quickly enough for the team.
Defensively, the Grizzlies have done well, which you would expect from a team that boasts two Defensive Player of the Year award winners. However, Taylor Jenkins’ team even struggled at that end in the last outing against Dallas, giving up 125 points. A much better effort will be required to finally get the first W of the year on the board Wednesday night.
With Adams out, this game promises to be a very tough one for Memphis on the glass. Utah is stacked with quality big men and has the sixth-best rebounding rate in the league early in the season. Newly-acquired John Collins is averaging a double-double, and top scorer Lauri Markkanen isn’t far from it either, having notched 9.8 rebounds to go along with 25.0 points.
Utah will hope to extend its home winning streak in the match-up to four games. The Jazz has dominated the head-to-head meetings historically, winning 65 of 102 clashes, but Memphis has been a team on the rise in recent years, and there have been plenty of outstanding results for them. Last season, the two teams split the regular-season series 2-2, with both sides winning their home games.
