Game 3 Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Clippers Betting Odds, Lines Picks & Predictions

After securing a 2-0 lead at home, the Jazz are traveling to LA for Game 3 of Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. The Clippers, on the other hand, have fallen 2 games behind for the second time in a row. Now, they have to try and claw themselves back, just like they did in the Dallas series. However, Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz present much sterner tests than the Mavericks. With Thursday’s game, they now have a 51-30 SU record this season, going 43-36-2 ATS. Utah is living up to its status as a No. 1 seed in these playoffs even without Mike Conley. The Jazz now have 6 straight postseason wins. Overall this season, they’re 58-21 SU and 46-31-2 ATS. This will be the fifth time the two teams meet this season. The Jazz have won all but one game.

Line Movement

The Clippers opened as -3.5 favorites, but the line has moved even further to 3.5 since release. It’s a huge 7.5-point compared to the line for Game 2. The total has been stable at 223.5.

Notes on Utah Jazz

Utah is still to lose a game in this playoffs with Donovan Mitchell on the court. Their only loss came in Game 1 vs Memphis when Mitchell was out. The young star is leading the offense which is firing on all cylinders this postseason. In 7 games so far, the Jazz are scoring 123.2 points per 100 possessions. It’s the third-best mark among the playoff teams. In a series featuring Kahwi Leonard and Paul George, Mitchell has been the best player by far. In two games, he averaged 41.0 points while shooting 52.5% from the field and 44.4% for three. The defense, anchored by Rudy Gobert is also doing its part. They managed to contain Kahwi so far, keeping him to only 22 ppg in Games 1 and 2. On Thursday, Utah played without Mike Conley, but a couple of other players stepped up. Jordan Clarkson scored 24 in 26 minutes from the bench while Joe Ingles had 19 points on an efficient 7-10 from the floor.

Mike Conley is still nursing the hamstring injury and is questionable for Saturday night. That’s the only injury worry for coach Snyder.

Notes on Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers are again 2-0 down and the main reason is their inability to stop Utah’s offense. Playing Zubac at the center and using drop coverage left plenty of space for Donovan Mitchell who destroyed the Clippers in the first two games. The small lineup with Morris at the 5 worked against Dallas, but that’s not the best option against Utah with Gobert dominating the paint. The matters worse, the Clips received news yesterday that Serge Ibaka is out for the season. At the moment, it seems that the only way for coach Lue’s team to win is to outscore the Jazz. There’s a lot of room for improvement in that area as they should get better from the deep. Also, there’s certainly a big game to come from Leonard. The good news is that Paul George finally produced, scoring 27 in Game 2.

Ibaka remains the only unavailable players for the Clippers.

Betting Pick: Utah +4.5

After what we saw in the first two games, there’s no reason for the -4.5 spread. The Clippers have won only 1 home game this postseason and there’s nothing to justify the 7.5 points swing between Games 2 and 3. Mitchell is on fire and Utah’s role players are easily outplaying the Clippers’ supporting cast. Kahwi may be capable of winning a game on his own but Utah should still cover the spread this big.