Mavs vs. Jazz GAMEDAY: Wood Upgraded to ‘Probable’ Against Utah
The Dallas Mavericks host one of the NBA's hottest teams in the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center.
Flashback to the 2022 NBA playoffs: the Mavericks beat the Jazz in six games in the first round. Now, this Utah roster looks a lot different and is off to a surprisingly hot start. After trading Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, Utah's leading scorer is Lauri Markkanen, who is averaging 21.4 points per game.
A win over the Jazz would go a long way to help stabilize Dallas' inconsistent start to the season. The Mavs' three wins have come against youthful Orlando, falling-apart Brooklyn and a fatigued Memphis team. In Dallas' three losses, the team gave up fourth-quarter leads.
The Mavericks could’ve been without Christian Wood, who was listed as questionable with a non-Covid illness on Tuesday, but was later upgraded to probably on Wednesday. JaVale McGee remains the starting center, but his workload has varied throughout games to start the season. With Wood under the weather, Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber could see some extra minutes.
Here's everything you need to know before tonight's game.
FUN FACT: The home team between Utah and Dallas has now taken each of the last seven regular-season meetings.
LUKA MAGIC: Luka Doncic, who leads the NBA in scoring (36.7 ppg) is on a historic pace. Doncic became the first player in NBA history to record 200+ points, 50+ rebounds and 50+ assists through his first six games of the season.
INJURY REPORT (DALLAS): Christian Wood (non-Covid illness) is probable. Dāvis Bertans and Frank Ntilikina are OUT.
INJURY REPORT (JAZZ): Leandro Bolmaro (H&S Protocols) and Simone Fontecchio (H&S Protocols) are out.
RECORDS: Dallas Mavericks (3-3), Utah Jazz (6-2)
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: American Airlines Center (Dallas, TX)
TV: Bally Sports Southwest (BSSW), NBA League Pass
RADIO: 97.1 The Freak, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)
ODDS: The Mavs are currently 6-point favorites vs. the Jazz.
NEXT UP: The Mavs continue their homestand, hosting the Toronto Raptors on Friday night.
FINAL WORD: Guard Tim Hardaway Jr. is still trying to find his groove through six games:
"I hope the Mavs' faithful understand that. I haven't played since January. This is only my 6th game back so it's going to be a long process but I'm going to keep working."
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