Utah Jazz: A Way-Too-Early Look at Potential Playoff Match-Ups

Jazz vs. Thunder

While the first three match-ups have looked somewhat less than favorable, these last two look somewhat better in my opinion. Although the Jazz have played the Thunder just twice so far this season and have split the season series at a game apiece after Utah wasn’t able to defend home court in the second contest, I still like their chances in a first-round match-up against OKC.

Utah’s first victory over the Thunder was a resounding 20-point victory and the most recent loss saw Utah blow several chances as well as a sizable lead in the fourth quarter before falling to Russell Westbrook and Co.

Not to mention, that latest loss came during a brutal stretch of the schedule for the Jazz while the Thunder were coming in off of four days of rest.

Taking all that into consideration, I truly think Utah matches up well against the Thunder and would particularly do so in a best-of-seven series. While Russell Westbrook in playoff mode would make for a scary opponent, for the most part Oklahoma City doesn’t have many other weapons that are all that overwhelming. Therefore, Utah’s depth would more than likely be able to cause Westbrook and the Thunder problems over the course of a playoff series.

If Westbrook were to run out of gas or even have a couple of off games during the series, the Jazz could very well find themselves arising victorious based purely on the sheer number of bodies that they’d be able to roll out each night to keep fresh and challenge a Thunder team that beyond Westbrook is less than stellar.

Utah’s team-first approach is certainly more likely to hold up in the postseason than Oklahoma City’s heavy reliance on Westbrook so this match-up could turn out quite well for the Jazz. Again, they’re most likely to meet as the fourth and fifth seeds so nabbing home court advantage with that fourth seed would be absolutely critical for the Jazz.

Yet with two contests left between these two teams on February 28th and March 11th, my opinion that the Jazz match up well against OKC could very well change based on the outcome of those games, but from what we’ve seen in their two contests on the season so far, this would be my preferred match-up for the Jazz out of the previously mentioned options.