The 'adventurous' West: Jazz in the middle of extraordinarily deep playoff race

SALT LAKE CITY — Jazz head coach Will Hardy summed it up this way: "The West is adventurous right now."

Maybe more so than it's ever been.

Currently, the No. 4 and No. 13 places in the standings are separated by a mere three games. So, in theory, a couple losses could send the team who is at the moment holding onto home court advantage, the New Orleans Pelicans, tumbling out of the play-in games all together. Yep, that's pretty adventurous.

How rare is this? In the last 20 seasons, the closest those two seeds have been at this juncture of the season is 8.5 games (2018-19) and more commonly the gap hovers around 15.0 games.

"Everybody's aware of the narrative, but I just think a lot less teams are tanking right now because of the play-in," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You're seeing great parity, which is great for competition, and it's great every single night — you're going to get tested. And that's really what you hope for as a competitor."

Spoelstra's conference hasn't been as wacky, but the point remains: There's a lot more teams still playing for something as the trade deadline approaches than normal.

The Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were seen as teams that would spend the season racing to the bottom of the standings. Instead, they have been led by likely All-Stars (Utah's Lauri Markkanen and Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) and are right in the mix for a playoff spot.

Then there are teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Clippers — who don't control their first-round picks, anyway, and have no incentive to drop in the standings.

Add in increased parity as the league has gotten deeper in talent, and there is a big cluster of teams fighting for just a few spots.

Hardy chuckled when asked how much he paid attention to the ever-changing landscape in the West.

"Oh, very little. One day you're fifth and one day you're 12," Hardy said. "I think it's great. It's very competitive. A lot of teams are kind of right in the mix, but we have a long way to go, and things can really change between now and then."

As tight as things have been, Hardy thinks there may be some separation on the horizon; these are the dog days of the NBA. The trade deadline is approaching, with rumors filling the news cycle, and the All-Star break is weeks away. After 50-plus games and long months, a breather is in view.

"This time of year, everything about the NBA is telling your brain to relax," Hardy said.

So, for Hardy, the key to rising above the tight mass of teams is to not allow teams to worry about that.

"You can make a little bit of a run here in this pocket of games," Hardy said. "We're lucky to have a home friendly schedule before then, and so it's really just about can you dig in mentally and maybe try to get a little bit of advantage right now."

The Jazz will play the next five games at home where they have a 16-9 record this season.

The tight grouping, though, offers a different possibility for the Jazz and some of the other squads: It's still not too late to tank. Utah is just one game ahead of the Lakers for the third-worst record in the conference. So if the Jazz want to play the lottery odds, it wouldn't be too difficult to get there.

The trade deadline will be a good indicator of what Utah's front office wants to do: continue to fight for a playoff spot or join the lottery-bound crew. But with how tight things have been, that decision can wait a few more weeks, too.

As for Hardy and his players, they'll keep doing what they have all season — and they're hoping they have a few more surprises in them.

"We think as a team and as a staff that we can still get better," Hardy said. "And I think that's our objective is how can we make this team better from today to the end of the season; continue to try to make improvements on both sides of the ball. And I think if we do that, hopefully the results go our way."

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