Houston isn't fully healthy either. Ime Udoka said Steven Adams and Clint Capela are both aiming to return on the coming road trip, in Washington or Miami, so neither is likely back for Friday. That means another night with Sengun as the only true center and a lot of minutes on him. The difference is that Utah is also down 2 bigs, so the Jazz can't make Houston pay inside the way a healthy frontcourt could.
The Jazz have been competitive for stretches. They led Orlando 87-85 going into the 4th before the Magic, on the second night of a back-to-back, won the quarter 38-21 and took it 123-108. Per our recap, that made 6 straight losses. Utah's 5 most recent losses came by between 6 and 15 points, so the effort is there for most of the game. The problem is the last 12 minutes, when the roster runs out of guys who can score.
Houston has been more volatile than the 9-3 record looks. The Rockets lost back-to-back games to Minnesota and Phoenix, then beat Denver 110-100 and Golden State 115-108, both at home. The Durant-Sengun pick-and-roll has been the steady part of the offense. Udoka has pushed Durant to look for his own shot instead of making the early pass, and the scoring has picked up since.
Tipoff is 7:30 PM CT at Toyota Center, and both teams come in with a day off since their last game. Watch the 4th quarter. If Utah is still close after 3 quarters, it has to prove it can hold up late, because Orlando showed this week what happens when it can't. If Houston controls the game early like it did against Golden State, it's a chance to give Sengun a lighter night before the road trip.
