Jazz Extend Win Streak, Then Get Standings Help

Mitchell poured in an easy 30 in his second career game in Manhattan. (Nathaniel S. Butler via espn.com)

Donovan Mitchell clearly likes playing in his hometown arena.

The first time Mitchell, a Westchester County native, visited Madison Square Garden, he started the game with an alley-oop throwdown on the first possession. He was just a week into his new role as a first-time starter, yet he led the Jazz’s first five with 19.

Now a full-fledged NBA star, Mitchell’s second trip home had a different feel altogether. He still spend the day brandishing that magnetic grin, surrounded by friends and family and clearly happy to be playing basketball on the hallowed court at 34th Street. But in the context of the actual basketball game, Mitchell was no longer a wide-eyed newcomer. His performance and gravitas were more akin to what happens when the marquee names light up the MSG scoreboard.

Mitchell dominated with what felt like an effortless 30 points in 28 minutes. He rocked the rim on an early drive and he poured in five feathery 3-pointers. The point total could have climbed further, but Mitchell’s and the Jazz’s work was done early, thanks in large part to his brilliance.

Utah won, 137-116, for their fifth straight blowout victory. Each of Utah’s recent string of wins has ended with 16-point margin or better. That matches a franchise record for consecutive wins by 15 or more, set last March when the Jazz were in the midst of a similarly soft stretch of schedule. Only five teams in league history have had longer streaks of wins by 15-plus, per Basketball-Reference’s streak finder tool.

It took Utah half of the first period to find the right gear, but after that the Jazz ran away. The Knicks pulled to within four at 20-16 when DeAndre Jordan got free for a dunk at the midway point of the quarter. Jazz coach Quin Snyder called a timeout, unhappy with casual defense that had allowed that and other easy buckets. The Jazz came back from that timeout having been, um, motivated properly.

The Jazz would control to the game to the tune of a 43-20 advantage over the next 13-plus minutes. Mitchell scored 10 of those Jazz points, while shooting a perfect 4-of-4 during that stretch. Reserves Kyle Korver and Jae Crowder contributed to the run with nine and eight points, respectively, while backup guard Raul Neto ran an efficient offense and big men Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert protected the paint and gobbled up rebounds.

After that spurt put the Jazz up by 27, the game would never be close again. The lead would balloon as high as 37, and even the Knicks’ garbage time runs couldn’t get them within 20. Utah coasted to its 42nd win of the season, guaranteed a third straight winning campaign.

Gobert didn’t miss a shot all night as he added 18 points to Mitchell’s 30. Joe Ingles got hot from deep to finish with 18 of his own, along with seven assists and five boards. Crowder finished with 15, Favors with a perfect-shooting 10, and guard Ricky Rubio drew one free throw trip after another on his way to 12 points on just two field goal attempts. (Ten of Rubio’s points came at the line.)

The win was hardly unexpected, but it helps the Jazz in their quest to improve their playoff seeding with 11 games to go. The date with New York was the second in a stretch of 11 straight games against lottery-bound opponents. Simply put, the Jazz need to take care of business in this stretch if they’re going to ascend through a crowded Western Conference field; spots three through eight are currently separated by just three games in the loss column.

That jumble got even more messy on Wednesday. After Utah’s rout of the Knicks concluded early on the East Coast, the Jazz got help from other teams in the form of losses dealt to their playoff seeding rivals.

• The rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies let a 19-point fourth quarter lead slip away against visiting Houston, as MVP frontrunner James Harden forced overtime. Harden scored all 10 of the Rockets’ points in OT (and 57 overall), but an offensive rebound by Jonas Valanciunas in the final second of the extra period allowed Memphis to sneak away with a 1-point win. It was Houston’s 27th defeat, leaving them just two games ahead of Utah in the L column.
• Likewise, late blunders almost cost the Raptors their road win in Oklahoma City, but a late stop allowed them to take the game to an extra frame, which they dominated. They scored the first nine points of overtime, and ultimately dealt the Thunder their 30th loss, which moves them behind the Jazz.
• The Miami Heat didn’t need overtime to beat the Spurs, but they too had to sweat a close finish as the home team surged. Rudy Gay missed what could have been the tying three, and the Spurs’ late push ran out of steam when they turned it over on their next possession and had to foul to stop the clock. After nine straight San Antonio wins, they finally dropped their 30th game, dropping them behind Utah.

The Jazz will still have a hard time catching Houston, but the fortuitous outcomes in Oklahoma City and San Antonio give the Jazz the leg up on the Thunder, Spurs and idle Clippers (who also are sitting on 30 losses). Utah jumped to fifth place thanks to the help offered in those three exciting finishes. Portland, which throttled the Mavs at home, remains just ahead of Utah in fourth place.

Utah will take the help, but they’d be well served to take note of the lesson, too. Wednesday night was good news for their playoff hunt but also a reminder that late-season contests against losing teams aren’t guaranteed wins. Toronto beating OKC is less of a surprise, but Spurs and Rockets fans probably weren’t too worried about the Heat and Grizzlies (respectively) heading into the night. Any of these next nine opponents — all sub-.500 teams — could deal Utah a painful blow by turning a projected win into a devastating defeat.

Even though the Jazz are highly favored in each of their next nine, the likelihood of sweeping this stretch is still low — just 15 percent if we go by the game-by-game odds assigned by forecasting site FiveThirtyEight. In other words, it’s likely that they will trip up somewhere in this nine-game stretch, and then their final two are tough matchups with the Denver Nuggets (at home) and the Clippers (in L.A.). 

Here’s a quick look at each Western Conference playoff team’s key stretch in the remaining three weeks of the season:

• Like the Jazz, the Warriors don’t have a single game remaining with less than a 51% chance of winning, per 538. Their only marginally complicated stretch is the first week of April, when they’ll face the Nuggets and Clippers, both at home.
• Starting next Thursday, the Nuggets will play seven of eight against Western playoff teams, including five that they’ll see on one side or another of a back-to-back. So expect the 22-loss Nuggets to slide back away from the Warriors a bit.
• Third-seeded Houston has a tough stretch in their next four: they host the Spurs, travel to the Pels and Bucks, and then host Denver. But they have another couple of toughies later on: they also have to visit the Clippers on the second of a B2B and they end the season in OKC.
• Portland’s schedule might be the easiest outside of Utah’s. Their toughest games are a home-and-home set with Denver in early April. They also have a 4-game trip coming up, but like Utah’s current trip, it’s entirely against mediocre to bad teams.
• Utah’s final four present the biggest challenges. Sacramento (home, 4/5) and the Lakers (away, 4/7) will be out of playoff contention by then, but still have the ability to play decent ball, and then Utah ends with Denver and LAC.
• The Spurs have a 3-game trip coming up that will likely cost them some losses: Houston, Boston, Charlotte. Then after a homestand against lotto teams, they’ll visit Denver on a B2B on April 3.
• OKC’s remaining schedule is bookended by tough games — at Toronto this Friday, then finishing with a Houston-Milwaukee B2B. In between they have a home-heavy stretch with mostly bad opponents, but they’ll need ALL of those seven games plus one of those three tough ones to hit 50 for the season.
• The Clippers have won eight of nine, but they have a visit to Milwaukee coming up, and then in the last 8 nights of the season they’ll face Houston (home), Golden State (away) and Utah (home).

Once again, the Western playoff race is going to resemble a pack of oiled-up sumo wrestlers trying to fight their way up a slide. And once again, the Jazz will be helped by a favorable opponent slate — IF they can help themselves by taking advantage.