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The 2021 NBA Playoffs get underway on Tuesday, May 18 with the new play-in tournament. The 7-10 seeds in each conference face off to finalize the final two spots in each conference’s eight-team first round. As the playoffs get underway, we’ll be breaking down DraftKings Sportsbook odds for each team to open the tournament and as teams advance through each round.
The Jazz were viewed as one of the Western Conference’s most dangerous dark horses last year when they added Bojan Bogdanovic and Mike Conley to a core group that included Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. They fell well short of expectations when the Denver Nuggets upset them in the first round of the playoffs. Utah returned with a vengeance in 2020-21 and looked like the best team in basketball for most of the season. Mitchell and Conley got banged up down the stretch, though. The condition of the Jazz’s starting backcourt will determine how far the team goes.
Jazz odds to win NBA championship, May 17: +700
Utah has the third-best odds (+350) to win the Western Conference and its title odds are +700. The Jazz have been respectable without Mitchell, but there has been a significant drop off in their quality of play since he went down with an ankle injury in April. Utah will get a chance at a tune-up game in the first round, but can’t underestimate its competition like it did last year.
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