Jazz Winning Ways Continue As Playoff Race Intensifies

March 28th, 2019 | by John Keeffer

The Jazz win for the eighth time in their last nine outings. (Melissa Majchrzak via espn.com)

The NBA Playoffs are just about a two weeks away, which means every game has crucial effects to the current seeding. We’ve seen that in recent weeks, as the Utah Jazz have jumped as high as fifth and dropped as low as eighth in the crowded Western Conference. After a 115-100 win against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, they are currently slated as the No. 5 seed, and would be facing off against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

Many people have spoken about the soft schedule that the Jazz are facing down the stretch, and while the competition may be weaker, that does not take away the importance of each game. The Jazz must view every opponent with the same level of importance, because every game will have a dramatic impact on playoff seeding, and that is what they did by defeating the Lakers on Wednesday. 

This was a team effort. The Jazz finished with 34 assists, which led to seven players finishing in double figures, including both Ruedy Gobert (22) and Derrick Favors (20) reaching the 20-point mark. Despite Donovan Mitchell scoring only 21 points over the last two games, the Jazz have won by a combined 48 points. That should put to rest any thoughts about being able to beat this team by taking Mitchell out of the game. Meanwhile, Joe Ingles narrowly missed a triple-double, with 11 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds.

As the end of the season bears down upon us, the thought now turns to who presents the Jazz the best and worst matchup. As mentioned early, they are currently slated to play the Rockets, which outside of the Warriors is probably the last team anyone wants to see in the playoffs. The Rockets are only a half game back of the Blazers, and with the recent loss of Jusuf Nurkic, there’s a good chance they swap places in the standings.

If the Jazz can maintain their hold on the five seed and the Blazers fall to the four seed, that would present the most appealing matchup. Damian Lillard is a difficult player to handle, but with injuries to CJ McCollum and Nurkic, they are a depleted team. Against the Jazz this season, Nurkic was averaging 15.6 points and 10.4 rebounds. It will be hard to make up that type of production. 

In Nurkic’s place the Blazers are likely to start former Jazz center Enes Kanter. Putting fan biases aside, Kanter is actually a solid backup big. He is an extremely gifted offensive scorer and rebounder, but his defensive limitations have made him a liability in long stretches on the court. The thought of Favors and Gobert matching up against Kanter for an entire series is making me want to start stocking up on the popcorn now.

If the Jazz were to fall in the standings, the seventh seed is the most appealing landing spot. That would ensure a matchup against the Denver Nuggets. While they have been an extremely effective regular season team, they are unproven. They don’t have the playoff experience that the Jazz have, and some have begun to think that they might be vulnerable in the playoffs. 

As for the specific matchup with the Jazz, the physical, defense first nature of the Jazz could make the Nuggets uncomfortable. The Nuggets are an offense first team, and they like to get out an run. Everything slows down and becomes more physical in the playoffs however. The Jazz are a team that can throw them off their game, and without previous playoff experience to fall back on, they could crumble. 

They have also proven capable of defeating the Nuggets by winning the regular season matchup two games to one. They held the Nuggets six points below their regular season scoring average and offensive rating. 

There only seven games remaining for the Utah Jazz, and we will be watching the standings every night heading down the home stretch. The ideal seeding for them would be the 4th, 5th, or 7th seed, and they are going to want to avoid the 6th and 8th seeds. Every game counts, and instead of hoping for other teams to slip up, they need to take care of their own business. Next up will be the Wizards at home, who are fresh off a last-second victory over the Phoenix Suns.

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