The rested Utah Jazz take on the road-tripping Celtics

Mar 18, 2023 - 8:07 PM

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The Utah Jazz (33-36) kick off the hardest remaining schedule in the NBA after 5 (!) days off against the East #2 seed and last season’s eastern conference champs, the Celtics. While the break is undoubtedly deserved after a rough 6 games in 11 nights road trip, we’ll see if this causes the Jazz to come out rusty or rested.

With the Celtics just 1.5 games back of the Bucks, they’ll likely look to get their licks in against a Jazz team that doesn’t really have too much incentive to try to stay in the playoff/play-in hunt. Of course, we can’t speak about the Utah-Boston relationship without mentioning Danny Ainge and the long but successful road that Ainge took to build a contender. With Will Hardy at the helm, we’ve seen this team overachieve time and time again relative to their perceived talent, with gems like Talen Horton Tucker averaging 17.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in 6 starts over that road trip, reclamation project Kris Dunn filling in nicely with 11.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.5 steals in that time period (42% 3 point shooting as well!), and even Simone Fontecchio finding some footing in the league (12.7 points on 42% 3 point shooting over those 6 games). Though the Celtics are coming into Salt Lake on a back-to-back, 5 games into a cross-country road trip, this will be a tough battle for the Jazz and great developmental minutes for the team.

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Game Info

When: 6:30 PM MST

Where: Vivint Smart Home Arena

TV: ATTSN-RM (AT&T Sports Net-Rocky Mountain), NBC-Sports Boston

Radio: KZNS/KTUB, WBZ—FM

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Projected Starting Lineups

Utah: G: Talen Horton-Tucker G: Ochai Agbaji F: Lauri Markkanen F: Kelly Olynyk C: Walker Kessler

Boston Celtics: G: Derrick White G: Marcus Smart F: Jaylen Brown F: Jayson Tatum C: Al Horford

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Injuries

Utah Jazz

• Jordan Clarkson - Finger (Day-to-day)
• Collin Sexton - Hamstring (Out)

Boston Celtics

• Malcolm Brogdon - Achilles (Day-to-day)
• Payton Pritchard - Heel (Out)
• Robert Williams - Hamstring (Out)
• Danilo Gallinari - Knee (Out)

Go Jazz!