Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz are one of the hotter teams in the NBA since the new year. In 22 outings, the Jazz are 15-7 and have gone from missing out on the playoffs up to the sixth seed in the Western Conference.
It’s an impressive run, similar to last year when the Jazz finished the season 29-6 to overcome a drop below .500.
This season comes as less of a surprise than last year. The schedule makers in the NBA were particularly difficult on the Jazz to begin the year before easing up after the new year. The Jazz now have the easiest schedule remaining of all 30 NBA teams.
But while the Jazz have shown an uptick in play, it remains to be seen whether they can earn their third-straight first-round playoff series victory, further establishing themselves as one of the premiere teams in the league. That might be a steeper climb than in years past.
Over the last 22 outings, the Jazz have played nine games against teams above .500 and currently in the playoff picture, and 13 against teams below .500. The promising news for the Jazz is they haven’t lost a game against a team they should beat; the Jazz are a perfect 13-0 against teams with losing records.
This is imperative for playoff seeding and should once again be separated by a game or fewer at season’s end.
Currently, the fourth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers sit just five games ahead of the ninth-seeded Sacramento Kings. The sixth-seeded Jazz are just two games ahead of the Kings. With the easiest schedule remaining, losing to bad teams on the schedule is the easiest way for the Jazz to find themselves on the outside of the playoffs looking in, and that hasn’t been a problem.
But when playing current playoff teams, the results have been more concerning for the Jazz. In the nine games against teams above .500, the Jazz are just 2-7 since their New Year's Day game against the Toronto Raptors. Their two victories have come over The Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets, with losses to Golden State, Houston, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Portland twice and Toronto.
It’s a problem the Jazz will have to fix before becoming a playoff team and they’ll face the league’s best each night.
Conversely, the Jazz closed out the season last year with several high-profile victories and beat 11 playoff teams along the way. The Jazz had just one bad loss to close the season, losing to Atlanta in Salt Lake. In those final 35 games, the Jazz lost to five playoff teams.
Ben Anderson: What the Jazz must prove after the deadline
The Jazz opted for continuity over a major shakeup at the trade deadline, but now they must prove that no trade was the best upgrade.Both ESPN and Basketball Reference predict the Jazz will finish with the fifth-best record in the Western Conference and will face the Trail Blazers on the road to start the postseason. FiveThirtyEight predicts the Jazz to finish with the sixth-best record and will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. The Jazz are currently 2-5 against those teams in the regular season and haven’t beaten either team since the new year.
The Jazz are once again having an impressive close to the season, but just because the record is similar to last year, it doesn’t mean the Jazz are performing the same way. While last season the Jazz went 11-5 against playoff teams during their blazing 35-games stretch, this year they’ve fared poorer against similar competition.
Optimism should remain for the Jazz, though, as they face seven more projected playoff teams. The Jazz can gain momentum with victories against each of them.
