Free Daily NBA Lock Pick, Wednesday December 13th: NY Knicks vs Utah 9:00pm ET
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Two teams near the bottom of the Western Conference standings battle on Thursday when the Utah Jazz (7-16, 10-12-1 ATS) travel to take on the Portland Trail Blazers (6-16, 11-11 ATS). The Jazz are hosting the Knicks on Wednesday night, before traveling for this game (Note: This article was published before the results of the Knicks/Jazz game). In Utah's previous game, they lost in Oklahoma City to the Thunder 134-120 as 12.5-point underdogs. The Blazers are coming off a 132-127 road loss to the Clippers, easily covering the 14.5-point spread as dogs. This is the final matchup between theses teams this season, the Jazz lead the series 2-1 with the home team winning every game. Tipoff is scheduled for 10:00 EST from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.
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The Utah Jazz have been going through a rough patch in their schedule, they have lost five of their last six games, with the lone with coming over this very Blazer team. Utah has been struggling with injuries, as their two top scorers, Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson have been forced to sit out games lately. Clarkson is out indefinitely, John Collins will miss Wednesday's game against New York with an illness, and Markkanen is listed as probable for Wednesday. In their last game, rookie Keyonte George stepped up with a 30 point game in the loss to the Thunder.
Markkanen is the leading scorer and rebounder on the team with averages of 23.7 PPG and 8.7 RPG. He missed some games recently with a hamstring injury, and is probable to play against the Knicks. This is the second game of a back-to-back, so it is unknown if Markkanen will play or not. Clarkson will be out, and John Collins may potenti ally be out as well, leaving Collin Sexton as the next highest scorer. Sexton has accepted a role off the bench and is averaging 12.7 PPG and 3.2 APG. Keyonte George is starting to shine in his rookie year, he has been starting recently, and is coming off his first career 30 point game. George is averaging 11.4 PPG this season. The top shooter on the team is typically Markkanen with 3.3 made threes per game, if he cannot play then Keyonte George becomes the team's top threat from the outside.
They have been forced to tinker with their lineup recently. Simone Fontecchio is a 28 year old out of Italy who has been starting recently as a 6'7 forward averaging 7.8 PPG. Kelly Olynyk and former Kansas star Ochai Agbaji have been playing big roles as well. Utah currently ranks 24th in the NBA in offensive efficiency and 27th in defensive efficiency according to dunksandthrees.com. The Jazz play at the 15th fastest tempo in the NBA.
Injur y Report:
Questionable: Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Walker Kessler
Out: Jordan Clarkson