Utah Jazz set to play the New-Look Mavericks (kind of)

Feb 6, 2023 - 6:26 PM

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The NBA Trade Deadline is in roughly 72 hours, however, the most significant move of the season may have already happened with yesterday’s Kyrie Irving trade, which came off of the heels of his trade request on Friday.

The Utah Jazz are the first team on the schedule for the Dallas Mavericks since the trade, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) Jazz fans won’t get to experience the Luka + Kyrie Mavericks tonight. The Mavs will surely be a fascinating team for the remainder of the regular season and could make some noise in the playoffs with this new addition. The Mavs title odds jumped from 30:1 all the way to 12:1 on DraftKings after the trade was announced yesterday.

The team the Jazz face tonight will look nothing like the Mavericks of the future. Due to the trade, the Mavs will not have Spencer Dinwiddie or Dorian Finney-Smith tonight, and Kyrie will not be available to play for the team until their game on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Add in the fact that Luka Doncic is listed as “Out” on the injury report with a right heel contusion, and it’s looking like it could be a disappointing night for the fans that bought tickets to see this game.

It’s unwise to ever underestimate an opponent in the NBA, but the Jazz should have a pretty easy road to victory tonight if they play to the level they’ve shown that they’re capable of so far this season. I’ll really be looking to Lauri Markkanen to have a big game tonight, he’s seemed to feast on under-manned teams this season. Although Lauri has been feasting against just about everyone for the past month or so, he hasn’t scored less than 20 points in a game since he put up 18 points in a game against Milwaukee on 12/17/2022. Since then he’s been averaging 29 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

It will be interesting to keep an eye on the energy level of the team tonight with so many names swirling around in trade rumors. It’s a tough time of year for players, not knowing if they’re going to be shipped across the country to play for a different team the next day. It’s part of the business, but I imagine that the stress level is pretty high with the amount of uncertainty around a rebuilding roster during trade deadline week. It’s been widely reported that the front office is actively fielding offers for multiple guys on the team, we’ll see if that has an impact on the court tonight at all.

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Injury Report

Dallas Mavericks

• Davis Bertans - OUT - Left Calf Strain
• Spencer Dinwiddie - OUT - Not With Team (Traded)
• Dorian Finney-Smith - OUT - Not With Team (Traded)
• Luka Doncic - OUT - Right Heel Contusion
• Maki Kleber - OUT - Right Hamstring Tear
• Frank Ntilikina - QUESTIONABLE - Illness; Non-Covid
• Christian Wood - QUESTIONABLE - Left Thumb Fracture

Utah Jazz

• Jarred Vanderbilt - QUESTIONABLE - Lower Back Spasms

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Game Info

When: February 6th, 2023, 7:00 PM MT

Where: Vivint Arena | Salt Lake City, UT

TV: ATTSN-RM

Radio: 97.5/1280 The Zone