NBA Basketball Matchup: Jazz vs Celtics
The Utah Jazz will come to Boston off a much-needed day of rest and having won nine of its last 10, aiming to change history, with a rare road win over the Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday night.
Date/Time: 7:30 PM ET, March 28, 2012
Venue: TD Garden, Boston, MA
Broadcast: CSNN
Spread: Boston -4
Over/Under: 190.5
On the heels of a tough start to a three-game road trip, the Jazz continued their push for a postseason appearance with a 105-84 win at New Jersey to start the week, just one day after suffering an exhausting quadruple-overtime loss at Atlanta on Sunday. The NBA’s first quadruple-overtime game since 1997.
Despite weary legs, Utah rebounded nicely however, shooting 51.9 percent from the floor while outmuscling and outscoring New Jersey 58-44 in the paint.
Paul Milsap led the offensive charge netting 24 points and 13 rebounds and Al Jefferson added 19 points as the Jazz Utah held the Nets to less than 20 points in three different quarters, and used an 18-4 run to put the game away,
The Jazz (27-23) who are averaging 109.0 points in their last eight, now have found themselves in the midst of the Western Conference playoff race.
Meanwhile, the Celtics (27-22) have controlled this series at home, winning eight of 11 against the Jazz, taking the last three by an average of 17.3 points. Boston also won the last meeting in Utah, 107-102 back on Feb. 28, 2011. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Not a very good statistic for the Jazz, who will have to do battle with a Boston team that seems to peaking at the right time, winning a season-high six straight home games after their fourth win in five games, 102-95 at Charlotte on Monday.
The win positions the Celtics on top of the Atlantic Division, tied with Philadelphia.
With Ray Allen still out of the line up with a sore right ankle, Paul Pierce led three other starters in double figures, including Kevin Garnett who picked up 24 to Pierce’s team-best 36 points and 10 boards.
Pierce, has been averaging 25.5 points on 55.6 percent shooting over the last four games.
Free Pick: Boston–The Celtics are nearly impossible to beat at home, and the Jazz have been absolute failures in their past attempts to alter the course of history.
Even so, with the rest of the Boston starters picking up steam in Allen’s absence. Getting him back for this one pretty much nails the lid shut on this one.
