Jazz at Wizards
After a signature win Friday, the Washington Wizards seek to continue the best home start in franchise history when the struggling Utah Jazz visit Sunday. The Wizards led wire-to-wire in snapping the Clippers' nine-game winning streak and improving to 11-2 at the Verizon Center this season. “We gave them a taste of that East Coast basketball tonight,” forward Paul Pierce told the Washington Post.
The Jazz, who have lost 10 of their last 11 games, are beginning a six-game road trip which will end Dec. 22 at Memphis. The Jazz have reached triple figures in scoring just four times in the last 18 games and have topped 104 points just once all season. That is bad news for Utah, because the Wizards yield just 97.2 points and are 13-0 when holding opponents under 100 points.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), ROOT Sports (Utah)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (6-17): Utah is coming off a 100-95 loss to the Miami Heat, losing forward Derrick Favors to an ankle injury in the first quarter. Enes Kanter led the way with 25 points and Gordon Hayward added 18, but the Jazz couldn't get the ball inbounds with 5.2 seconds to play and trailing by three. Second-year point guard Trey Burke has a more than respectable 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio but is only shooting 36.1 percent from the floor – lowest among all players in the NBA with 200 shot attempts.
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (16-6): Bradley Beal led the way against the Clippers with a season-high 29 points and four 3-pointers. With 10 points, 11 assists and some great defense, Wall outplayed perennial all-star Chris Paul (season-high six turnovers) in recording his first win in seven head-to-head matchups. “(Wall) was waiting for this game (against Paul),” Washington center Marcin Gortat said of Wall. “He wanted to win this game and it wasn’t about who was going to score more points. (It was about) who’s going to lead the team to win the game?”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hayward is averaging 18.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
2. Wall has four straight double-doubles, leads all guards with 14 for the season and is riding a career-best streak of seven consecutive double-digit assist games.
3. Utah is 2-8 on the road and yields 112.7 points per 100 possessions - second most in the NBA.
PREDICTION: Wizards 102, Jazz 93