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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz wrap up the final week of the regular season.
But unlike the past four seasons, this week isn’t the end of the year; the Jazz will make their first playoff appearance since 2012 when the NBA enters the postseason after games Monday at the Warriors and Wednesday’s home finale against San Antonio.
The Jazz and Clippers are tied for fourth in the West with two games remaining, but L.A. holds the tiebreaker and finishes the season against Houston and Sacramento.
Utah head coach Quin Snyder has four goals for the end of the regular season: get healthy, be playing well, lock up the No. 4 seed and secure home-court advantage.
Each objective — even the fourth seed, at least mathematically — are still up in the air.
“If we are the six-seed, frankly, that is OK with me, too,” Snyder said. “I am not going to lose sleep over it. If we are the sixth seed, fifth seed, fourth seed — it’s been seven years since we won a playoff game.
“We are going into it having the best position to win the playoffs.”
One of Snyder's star players agreed.
“We want to be playing our best basketball,” Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. “I think defensively, we want to make sure we aren’t giving up easy looks or easy buckets. Coaches have a game plan, and we want to make sure we are doing it right.
“Offensively, we want to make sure we are taking care of the basketball and get good looks and hopefully focus on the last few games.”
The health concern is real, too. George Hill has missed six-straight games with a strained groin muscle, and backup point guard Raul Neto twisted his ankle in Saturday night’s loss to Portland.
Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood are both dealing with knee soreness. Most recently, Hayward is listed on the injury report as questionable with a left quadriceps contusion.
Even with all the injury woes, there are plenty of positives to take from the final weeks of the regular season.
“Guys have been asked to step up and be in roles that maybe they wouldn’t have been,” Hayward said. “You see guys are playing extremely well here at the end, towards the playoff run.
“I think it really has been kind of a blessing in disguise, but you have to try to turn negatives into positives. I think we’ve done that, for the most part.”
