Opinion: Surprising that Celtics were heavy favourites over the Jazz

Jusuf Nurkic (YouTube)

The fact that the Boston Celtics were a 10.5 point favourite at home against the Utah Jazz on Monday was actually very surprising. That is because the Celtics are clearly missing their star player Jayson Tatum, who is out all season long with a ruptured Achilles tendon. The bottom line they are not as good as last year, where they had the third best regular season record at 61 wins and 21 losses. Not having Tatum’s 26.8 points per game from 2024-25 does make a huge difference.

The Jazz, meanwhile, are clearly better. They did have the worst record in the NBA last season at 17 wins and 65 losses. We are already seeing significant progression from point guard Keyonte George of Lewisville, Texas, and forward Lauri Markkanen of Vantas, Finland, who have combined to score 54.2 points per game in 2025-26 after combining to have 35.8 points per game last season.

On Monday, we saw the emergence of not only George (31 points) and Markkanen (20 points), but center Jusuf Nurkic of Tuzia, Bosnia and Herzegovina too. The 12th year veteran is in his first season with the Jazz, and played a huge role in Utah’s 105-103 upset win in Boston. Nurkic not only had the double-double (11 points and 11 rebounds), but the game-winning hook shot with six tenths of a second left to break a 103-103 deadlock.

You cannot sleep on the Jazz. The team now has to be taken seriously. This team is not in the era where Karl Malone and John Stockton played like giants, but we are seeing definite progression. A 35-40 win season is definitely attainable, and that would be improvement from last year.