Utah Jazz Closing in on Fourth Seed in the West

Thanks to some exceptional play of late, the Utah Jazz find themselves solidly in fifth in the Western Conference and closing in quickly on the fourth place spot.

Having only recently passed the midway point of the season, there’s still a ton of basketball left to be played in the 2016-17 season. Nevertheless, with a 28-16 record and riding a five-game winning streak, the Utah Jazz are making quite a name for themselves this season as a legitimate playoff contender in the Western Conference.

They’re currently fifth in the West and have even built up some separation between themselves and the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder who were previously breathing down their necks in the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. Now, heading into Saturday’s slate of games, the Jazz own a 2.5-game lead over Memphis and a 3-game lead over OKC.

There’s no doubting that it’s a good spot to be in, but the Jazz aren’t going to settle for just that. They have their eyes set on home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and they’re well within striking distance of reaching it.

Despite going 7-3 over their last 10 games, the fourth place Los Angeles Clippers fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves one night before the Jazz defeated the Dallas Mavericks, allowing Utah to close within one game of the Clips. And with Chris Paul out six to eight weeks after undergoing thumb surgery and Blake Griffin still ailing from a knee injury, it’s possible that LA will fall even further.

While I hate to see injuries to any player, the Jazz have also had to cope with their fair share, so a little bit of help to get them back where they deserve to be is somewhat welcome at this point. However, it’s been reported that Griffin could return as early as this upcoming week during the team’s five-game road trip, so the Clippers injury woes may not last as long as presumed.

That would certainly provide the team with a boost, but they’re still in for a tough stint of games as they’ll be matched up on the road against the likes of the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors and the red-hot Philadelphia 76ers (and I’m really not kidding on that one, Philly’s won six of their last seven and eight of their last ten).

Not to mention, that after playing the Warriors on the road on January 28th, the Clippers will host that same Golden State team a few days later on February 2nd. Therefore, there’s a lot of challenging games ahead that could lead to Clipper losses and Utah will have to take advantage if they hope to climb ahead of them in the standings.

They can start by taking care of business tonight against an inconsistent Pacers team who has looked downright bad both on the road and in second nights of back-to-backs. From there, Utah will have the challenge of playing their third and fourth games in five nights as they host OKC and visit Denver. But even if they can win one of those it should help keep them in a good spot as it’s looking like LA will be in for multiple losses ahead, especially without Chris Paul.

After that grueling stretch, the Jazz will have a four-game home stint, then a three-game road trip. They play some good opponents during that stretch, but no team that I would truly consider elite, so in comparing the two teams’ strengths of schedule, the Jazz have an enormous opportunity to move up and surpass the Clippers because of that as well.

Then in Utah’s second to last game before the All-Star Break, they’ll take on none other than the Los Angeles Clippers themselves for just the second time this year after not playing them since the third game of the season. If Utah isn’t already in fourth place by then (which personally I think they will be) that game could very well be the battle for fourth place and regardless of whether it is or not, it’ll certainly be a contest with significant playoff implications.

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Thus the Jazz have a ton to play for night in and night out. Despite some tightly contested games over the past two weeks, Utah is continually finding a way to win and clearly looking like a team that knows what’s at stake.

And if they can ride this current hot streak they’re on and capitalize on a wounded Clippers team with a tough schedule ahead, they could very well find themselves in fourth place in the West as early as next week and almost certainly by the time the All-Star Break rolls around.