NBA Basketball

2026-02-12 - Portland Trail Blazers at Utah Jazz

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

Portland Trail Blazers @ Utah Jazz
United States : NBA Basketball
Thursday 12th February 2025 - Scheduled 9pm
2am (British Time)

Preview

The All Star Break begins after the final regular season games are wrapped up on Thursday and the fans of the Utah Jazz (18-37) may feel some disappointment having seen the team win back to back games for the first time in around six weeks. They will be looking to keep the momentum going when hosting this game, although the fans will also be well aware that the Jazz are not planning to lose their protected Draft Pick which only returns to them with a bottom eight finish.

They are 8 games out of the Play In Tournament positions anyway, but that does mean Utah games will be hard to predict following the All Star Break.

At times they will want to get their best players on the court, but there are also going to be moments when they are happy to lose games.

This game on Thursday is going to be played after Utah were out on Wednesday and the second half of a back to back scheduling spot is usually a good time to rest the bigger names. However, Jaren Jackson Jr has arrived in a trade and is looking to find some rhythm so it may not be the situation for Utah to rest bodies, especially not with a relatively long break coming up.

Utah will be hosting the Portland Trail Blazers (26-29) who would be the Number 10 Seed in the Western Conference if the season ended today.

The Trail Blazers were blown out on Wednesday and there is a feeling that they are going to be short-handed for this trip to Salt Lake City. Portland are 5 games clear of those who may look to push into the top ten of the standings, and it may actually be a thought to give the best players every chance of returning for the 'second half' in much better shape than they have been.

In recent games Portland have been shooting the three ball very well, which is perhaps why they have been set as a strong favourite to win here. They will make a big effort to line up those shooters within a game, but that is also something the Utah Jazz will be ready for and who have been playing the three ball Defensive schemes with some real intensity.

With this spread in mind, the real question becomes whether the Utah Jazz can continue performing Offensively to keep this one close.

They are facing a Portland team that have been allowing teams plenty of success on that side of the court and the Jazz look balanced enough to find open shooters. This has been an important reason that the Utah have covered the spread in each of the last six games played and four of those have been in games in which they have been set as the underdog.

Since making the trade for Jaren Jackson Jr, it has felt like the Utah roster have just increased the intensity on the court and they had covered in seven in a row against Portland before losing by 20 points on the road last month.

That performance should also act as a motivation for the Utah Jazz who were only 3 point underdogs when hosting Portland in October.

Prediction

You will have to keep an eye out on team news and any late scratches to either roster with the All Star Break coming up and both having played on Wednesday.

At the time of writing, Utah look to be getting too many points although it does make you wonder what the oddsmakers have been hearing.