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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz have made a remarkable turnaround.
On Dec. 11, following a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Jazz dropped to 7-16 on the season.
But after their rout over the Toronto Raptors Friday, the Jazz are now 13-4 in their last 17 game — tied for the second-best mark in the league. The Jazz are suddenly back to .500 at 20-20 and are sitting in the 10th spot in the West.
After an atrocious start to the year, the Jazz have quickly climbed back into the playoff picture ... or at least a play-in one.
Over that time, Utah has featured a top-10 offense and defense. Since the Jazz went to the starting lineup of Kris Dunn, Collin Sexton, Simone Fontecchio, Lauri Markkanen and John Collins eight games ago, they've had the fifth-best defense in the league and sixth-best offense.
It's been stunning.
A team that looked like it was headed for a top-five draft pick has morphed into a playoff contender.
Sure, the Jazz got healthy, which helped; Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, Walker Kessler, Keyonte George and Collins all had various ailments, and Dunn missed some time due to a personal issue.
But even when those guys were all playing at the beginning of the season, the Jazz were struggling. And struggling badly.
So … has this all been a surprise to any of the players?
"Oh, not at all," Sexton said. "As a team, I feel like we've worked so hard to get to this point, so with us here at this point, we just got to keep it going."
But even if they felt like things were going to get better, the rate of the turnaround — from losing consistently by big margins to suddenly waxing teams — has even taken some of the players aback.
"At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of injuries, so I knew that something was going to happen," Fontecchio said. "We were gonna pick it up at some point, but this is pretty impressive. I don't know what our record was at some point — I know it was really bad — to .500 feels good; and now, we don't want to stop. So keep playing, keep playing better and better and see what happens."
During that stretch, the Jazz have won in a lot of different ways: big shooting nights and a stymied look with a zone defense; Clarkson has shot them to wins, and so has Sexton and Markkanen; they've also won with vastly different game plans and strategies.
On Friday, the Raptors were 16-of-24 from 3-point range entering the fourth quarter — and the Jazz led by 20 points.
The Jazz won by shutting down the paint, and they'll likely throw out a different strategy against the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday.
"What you're seeing is the culmination of a lot of work on those things," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "You try things early in the season, you talk about them, you practice them, but you're not quite there yet. Doesn't mean you still don't work on them and that you don't try to do them in the game, but I think what we're seeing now is it's all starting to make a little bit more sense."
In short, the Jazz have gotten better — as a team and as individuals. That's been the catalyst to one of the most unlikely turnarounds in recent years.
"The part that I've really appreciated about our team is that even though the results weren't necessarily good, they didn't just abandon the plan," Hardy said.
So a surprise? Maybe a little, but not one that wasn't earned.
"We were obviously hoping. Nobody knows how it's gonna turn around," Markkanen said. "But I think just work we've been putting in and really emphasizing the togetherness and playing for each other. I think that's been the key is turning it around, but nobody obviously knows."
