Utah Jazz Week Four Outlook, Predictions

After a solid 4-1 record on their five-game road trip, the Utah Jazz have a great opportunity to prove their mettle against four very beatable teams this week.

Well, the Utah Jazz’s first eastern road trip is now in the books. Particularly when considering all the obstacles they had to face – injuries to George Hill and Derrick Favors and two back-to-backs – Jazz fans have to be ecstatic with the 4-1 record over five games.

Yes, the very winnable loss to the Hornets hurts as the Jazz were one quarter away from sweeping the trip with a perfect 5-0 record, but given that it was a narrow loss to a tough Charlotte team while George Hill was sidelined, fans still have to be happy with the Jazz’s overall performance.

In last week’s predictions, I was correct in pinning the Jazz at 3-1 (4-1 for the whole trip). However, I had projected that they would beat the Hornets then drop the one at Miami thinking that by that fifth game the Heat would have the advantage over a fatigued Jazz team.

Yet the Jazz didn’t look fatigued in the least as they were able to run away with a convincing 102-91 victory. Since I wrongly picked those two games, my record for the week was 2-2, putting my record for the year at 6-5, one whole game back of the Jazz’s impressive 7-4 record.

Frankly, I wouldn’t mind one bit if I kept missing on my predictions if it meant the Jazz kept increasing that lead.

Utah will have a pair of games at home on Monday and Thursday to start out the week, allowing them a nice chance to get back in the swing of things following the long trip. Thursday’s match-up will be a nationally televised game against the Chicago Bulls, so it will be good for Utah to have those extra two days off before they take the national stage for that contest.

But the home stint won’t last long as Utah will turn around and have a back-to-back on the road on Saturday and Sunday at Houston and at Denver.

While Utah doesn’t have any games this week against elite opponents, they also don’t face any pushovers. Even the 3-7 Nuggets have given some teams real issues so far this year. Therefore, if they’re to continue to increase their win percentage, they’ll need a solid week in the days ahead.