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SALT LAKE CITY — Pick your favorite reason — the tough schedule, poor shooting, porous defense — but whatever it is, the Jazz have struggled to meet expectations through the first two months of the season.
After winning a playoff series each of the past two years, the Jazz were thought to be guaranteed to make the postseason this season. Some prognostications had them challenging for the second seed in the Western Conference behind the Golden State Warriors, who have won the past two NBA championships.
“Right now, we’re decidedly average,” Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said during an interview on The Zone Sports Network.
Lindsey’s remarks came last week, the day after the Jazz won their second consecutive game to pull even at 13-13. Since then, they went on the road and fell behind big in two games, losing to the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder on consecutive nights.
Instead of being firmly in the playoff hunt, they are languishing in 13th place, two games below .500. With 54 games remaining, the playoffs are not close to a sure bet.
But "hold on," some are saying, "help is on the way." That assistance is coming in the form of a more accommodating slate of games.
“You've just got to get through this part of the schedule, and we’re almost there,” said Jazz television analyst Matt Harpring. “It’s becoming tiresome because we’re almost there. But I do feel by the end of the month that the schedule certainly does turn in favor of the Jazz. Does that mean they’re going to start going on a streak like they did last year? I’m not so sure. That’s yet to be seen.”
By mid-December, the Jazz have played an NBA-high 18 road games, splitting them down the middle — but part of the problem is they are only 4-6 at home.
Starting Dec. 22, the Jazz begin a four-game homestand and then have a stretch in January in which they are home eight out of nine games.
“I do think they can climb back into it,” Harpring said. “I do sense an urgency there. If they’re going to make a run, they’re going to have to do it here when the schedule does turn. They can’t kind of mess around, lose to teams when they should be beating them if they want to be in the top four.”
Nothing is guaranteed, though. The Jazz still need improvement to win games and can’t exclusively rely on a softer schedule.
While it’s true a high preponderance of road games has contributed to a subpar record to date, the nature of some of the losses are disturbing. Some of the lowlights include a 50-point loss at the Dallas Mavericks, a 27-point defeat at home to the Indiana Pacers and falling by 13 points at home to the Toronto Raptors, who were without Kawhi Leonard and had played the night before.
“From what I’ve gathered so far, I feel like the Jazz are kind of a front-running team,” Harpring said. “When they’re good, they’re very good. They can really shoot. But they’re not as good as far as coming from behind as they are playing in front.”
With the majority of the season remaining, the Jazz still have plenty of time to climb up the standings and have a history of doing so.
As last season proved, Quin Snyder’s teams have a history of improving after the holidays. The Jazz fell to nine games below .500 last January before going on a 29-6 streak.
“The talent is there,” Harpring said. “The fact that what we’ve seen this team do last year, we know what they’re capable of. I don’t think it’s time to panic at all.”
Not yet, anyway.
