The Jazz are back on the floor to finish out their five-game road trip with a battle against the Miami Heat Saturday night.
The Heat are 2-5 on the season after three straight losses to the Toronto Raptors, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls.
The matchup to watch will be between Heat center Hassan Whiteside and Rudy Gobert. Whiteside is the new face of the Heat after the departure of Dwyane Wade. He is off to a terrific start, averaging 17.9 points on 53.5 percent shooting from the floor to go along with 14.7 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 32.3 minutes.
What Gobert needs to do to slow down Whiteside is to keep him from getting deep post position. While Whiteside shoots 53.5 percent from the floor, he connects on 70.6 percent of his shots from 3 feet and in, according to Basketball-reference.com. If Gobert can push him outside of 3 feet, Whiteside's field-goal percentage drops to 44.1 percent.
Another way for Gobert to limit Whiteside's touches from in close is to keep him off the offensive glass where he averages 3.7 boards a game. While no one has been able to keep him off the offensive boards completely, the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs held him to just one offensive rebound. The Heat lost both of those games.
Jay Yeomans is a sports writer for DeseretNews.com. Contact him at jyeomans@deseretdigital.com.