Warriors @ Jazz Predictions 5/10/21: Kent Bazemore over 4.5 rebounds

Kent Bazemore is the focus of our Player Prop in this one as Zach Rainey takes a look at the Warriors trip to Utah tonight to face-off against the Jazz...

We are just over one week away from the NBA Play-In Tournament.

For those of you unfamiliar with the format, the top six seeds are guaranteed a playoff spot. The No 7 seed will take on the respective conference’s No. 8 seed, while the No. 9 seed will play the No. 10 seed.

From there, the winner of the No. 7 vs No. 8 seed, gets the seven seed outright and will take on the No. 2 seed in the first round. The loser of the No. 7 vs No. 8 seed takes on the winner of the No. 9 vs No. 10 for a chance at the No. 8 seed to take on the top seed.

That being said, I think we’re in the part of the season where some teams are more motivated than others. In Monday’s action, the No. 1 seed in the West Utah Jazz take on the current No. 8 seed Golden State Warriors and currently sit at -2.5 favorites.

The Jazz are currently hold a two-game lead over the Phoenix Suns for the one seed, whereas the Warriors sit just a half-game over the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed. If I’m the Warriors, I want to do everything I can to ensure I get the eight seed and basically two chances at making the playoffs from the play-in games instead of getting the No. 9 seed and risk losing a weird game to the Spurs and being eliminated altogether.

The Jazz will be without guard Mike Conley in addition to Donovan Mitchell for this contest. While I believe the Mitchell injury is more concerning long term, not having Conley to guard Stephen Curry I think will be a major factor.

Curry is at the point where he can pretty much put up any shot he wants without much consequence with the Warriors knowing he needs to get at least 30 for them to have a chance on a given night. 

In the five games the Warriors played last week, the lowest Curry scored was 30 and averaged 38 per game over the stretch. I know none of those games came against playoff teams, but they did walk away 4-1, winning by over 10 points in all the wins, while the one loss was by five points in the second game of a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans.

I think the Warriors at +2.5 are the play here. They’re simply more motivated at this point, as their season could potentially be on the line going into the last week of the season, whereas Utah’s primary focus at this point is getting fully healthy.

It’s also impossible to overlook Utah’s success at home versus on the road. At home, the Jazz are a whopping 31-4. On the road, they’re 19-14. Take out two of Utah’s best offensive options, I’m taking the Curry show.

I’m a big player props guy, and will try to give out at least one in all the game previews from this point forward. I know how it can be when your side in a game is shot to you know what in the first half, leaving you nothing to cheer or watch for the rest of the game.

For this one, let’s go with Kent Bazemore over 4.5 rebounds. The number at BetMGM and PointsBet is a little high at -140, but you can get it at -113 at 888Sport, the same at BetRivers and Unibet.