The Jazz are capable of playing better defense than they showed in last night's 104-93 home loss to the Rockets.

The Jazz were beaten in the 3-point game as Houston made 14 of 27 from long distance while Utah missed 15 of 18 3-pointers.

I see Utah tightening its perimeter defense, outrebounding the Mavericks who were seventh-from-the-bottom in rebounding margin last season and shooting better especially Gordon Hayward, who has caused problems for Dallas in the past.

The youthful Jazz are going to experience growing pains again this season. But they have fresh legs right now so playing for the second time in 48 hours shouldn't hurt them. They are 4-1 ATS the past five times when coming off a double-digit home loss.

Dallas is not a good home team versus the spread. The Mavericks failed to cover in eight of their last 10 regular season home games. This is their first home game of the season, which can be distracting and lead to overconfidence playing this weak opponent. The Mavericks face a tougher challenge in their next game when they play at New Orleans on Saturday.

The Mavericks nearly upset San Antonio in their opener on Tuesday. However, the Mavericks were outrebounded, allowed the Spurs to shoot 53 percent from the floor and only had 17 field goals raising concern about stagnant ball movement.

There's no reason for the Mavericks to win by a huge margin or show much of their playbook as they meet the Jazz again a week from Friday in Salt Lake City. A simple single-digit victory will suffice nicely for Dallas.