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Got Your Seatbelts At The Ready?
Posted by: Steven on April 10th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Can anyone predict how this is all going to play out anymore?
Just when injuries and games rushing by in a hurry looked like leaving the Jazz with no positive momentum Grandpa Pop leaves the Spurs 3 star players back in San Antonio. In so doing he gifts the Jazz a win that must be leaving the organizations at Dallas, Houston, Denver and Phoenix scratching their heads.
That result left the team with games against the Rockets, Hornets, and Grizzlies the rest of this week and a playoff destiny largely in its own hands. Get 3 good results there and the Jazz will be hanging on the coat tails of their playoff rivals. Earlier in the season I would have said that Houston and Memphis were very much beatable this year, however both now are on good runs and Utah healthy for much of the season is suddenly running short on numbers. Still if the Jazz were to somehow come out with a 3 win streak out of that lot Utah will deserve to be in the mix for a playoff slot. Depending on other results this week they may still be lying short but will be putting pressure on their playoff rivals to win their upcoming games.
I keep reading that the Jazz have one of the easier schedules remaining, but although I’m paying attention to results on a nightly basis of the playoff rivals around the Western Conference I am admittingly ignorant of who else is playing who on a week by week basis. I do know that looking at the Jazz’s remaining schedule I want to see who the other teams are playing. Utah begin next week with Dallas, who are struggling to get any rhythm going and have just lost last season’s 6th man of the year in Odom. However Dallas is always a team that the Jazz struggle against. We then play Orlando and Phoenix inside a Portland Trailblazers sandwich. Orlando, for all their drama this year, have been getting results when it mattered all season long. Nash’s chances of getting to the playoffs once again have risen like the mythical bird since the all star break. Portland are the only team left that have nothing to play for. We can’t even expect them to be tanking because their final position is pretty much secure either way.
If the Jazz are going to make the playoffs they are going to have get there playing the same way they have all season. Playing hard. Strap yourselves in, its going to be a rough ride. If they don’t make it we can at least look forward to one draft pick in the lottery this year.
I don’t know about you but looking at the way GS are playing I’m not expecting to get that other draft pick this off season. New Jersey certainly are not going to be doing us any Favors this year after apparently already getting ditched by DWill and coming out big losers in last season’s trade. Detroit are not a good team but they are mere amateurs when it comes to tanking when compared to GS, and both the Pistons and the Nets are just one win back from the Warriors. If nothing else is predictable we can expect GSW to fall down from the 9th to the 7th worst record in the NBA very shortly.
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3 Responses
I am excited but worried allittle too . Winning that game against the Spurs should help give us some confidence goin into this last stretch , but we are also missin key players now which makes us short handed .
But I still beleive in this team , Go Jazz !!!!!
crap shoot… Losing at home to SAC and PHX cut the legs out of our hope for playoffs. Its possible that it was just the tail end of the slump that started after the 4ot ATL loss. And Jazz usually streak after 1 win and some practice time. Favors and Hayward and Harris are playing great basketball… a win streak is possible.
I think our key players are still healthy but its always good to have a full squad of players to rotate with when needed. A lot of other teams are struggling to pick a healthy squad too. I thought Houston might suffer but they seemed to have carried on regardless. Denver could still go either way with the players they are trying to get fit again.
Some practice time has been crucial to this Jazz team all season, as has playing at home. Hayward has been playing like I wanted to see him play all season. He always seemed to be ready to step up in 4th quarters when required early in the season but defer to his teammates earlier in the game but now he seems to realize that he has the energy and earned the right to be more forceful throughout the game. Where this Harris was hiding I don’t know. I don’t care if he’s not a pure PG in the mould of DWill or Stockton, I didn’t ever expect him to be as good as them. I just wanted to see him doing what he can do, and now he’s putting it together, and at the right time, its fun to watch. I’ve loved watching Favors growth in defense for quite a few weeks now. Sometimes though I wish he’d begin his offensive plays with a couple of dunks just to get his confidence going. When he gets a couple of points on the board he’s a high percentage player, when he begins a game missing a couple his confidence in his shot can sometimes disappear.