Utah Jazz (1-9) at Golden State Warriors (6-3)
Tipoff: Thurs. 11/16/2013, 7:30PM PDT
Location: ORACLE Arena, Oakland, CA
TV: CSNBA | Radio: KNBR 680 AM
Livetweet: @LetsGoWarriors (@goldenstatenz)
Tonight, the Golden State Warriors host the team that allowed them to complete their move for Andre Iguodala this off-season. The Warriors dumped Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson‘s expiring contacts onto the Utah Jazz along with Brandon Rush and a couple of draft picks in order to create enough salary cap space to sign Iguodala outright.
There’s no better team for the Warriors to face coming off their emotional victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday. The Jazz are a league-worst 1-9 and are scoring just 88.8 points per game. They’re starting Jefferson, who played only sparingly for the Warriors, so that shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Even with the clear advantage in talent, the Warriors need to be careful with the Jazz in at least one area. After getting dominated on the boards against the Thunder Thursday, the Warriors now face the second-best offensive rebounding team in the league.
Young big men Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert are beasts on the board, and the Jazz certainly miss enough shots for them to collect on the offensive end. If the Warriors are able to manage the rebounding battle it should be an easy win. Considering the way they’ve handled most teams at home this season, it should be another double-digit victory.
That could mean another chance for the bench to get some solid minutes in. With Toney Douglas still out, they’re still looking for useful backup PG minutes. Both Kent Bazemore and Nemanja Nedovic could see significant court time.
The Jazz’s best player is Gordon Hayward, but even he isn’t a huge scoring threat. Despite averaging 19.8 a a game, he’s shooting just 42.8 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from three-point range.
The Warriors have a chance to extend their home winning streak to 5 games to start the season.
A last match-up to look out for? Klay Thompson vs Alec Burks. Burks doesn’t have a huge role yet, but his athleticism could make him a good challenge for Thompson on both ends. It should be interesting to see if Klay can have yet another big game at home, where he’s scoring 26.5 points on 68.3 percent shooting.
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