After a light two-game slate last week, the Utah Jazz will be in for a much greater challenge as they face four tough opponents in the sixteenth week of NBA action.
The Utah Jazz went undefeated last week as they finished up their four-game home stand with just two games in seven days. With plenty of days of rest and only a two-game slate, the Jazz were able to take care of business and log wins against both the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets.
While the win over Charlotte ended up being a little closer than I had expected, I had picked the Jazz to go 2-0 in my preview of Week 15 and they most definitely did not disappoint. With those two victories, Utah’s record improved to 32-19 as did my own personal predictions record keeping us tied heading into the last full week before the All-Star break.
Utah’s wins and the recent Clippers losses helped propel the Jazz up to the fourth seed in the Western Conference where they hold a one-game lead over LA. With that being the case, this upcoming sixteenth week of NBA action holds a great deal of importance if the Jazz hope to maintain that spot.
4th in the West. #TakeNote pic.twitter.com/aaGN444LU4
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 5, 2017
They’ll head out on a three-game road trip that begins on Monday and will face four challenging but definitely beatable teams. If they hope to keep a solid hold of fourth place while creating some space between them and the Clippers and allowing themselves some breathing room against tougher opponents, this is the kind of week where Utah needs to simply take care of business.
They’ll start out against the Atlanta Hawks tonight who are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference and have had their share of ups and downs of late as they’ve logged a 6-4 record over their last ten games.
From there, they’ll have a back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday as they visit two Western Conference foes in the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks who, despite getting off to atrocious starts, have been playing much better of late.
The Mavericks have moved all the way up to tenth in the conference after winning six of their last seven games and are starting to look more like the gutsy, “find-a-way-to-win” team that has become expected of them over recent years.
And New Orleans, despite losing four straight, recently went on a solid run that saw them defeat both the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.
Finally, Utah will end the week hosting the red-hot Boston Celtics who have won seven straight and find themselves just two games behind Cleveland for the top spot in the East.
So as you can see, the Jazz will have their work cut out for them this week as they look to make their stay at the fourth seed a permanent one. This is one of those hard to predict weeks where depending on which Utah team shows up the team could go 4-0 just about as easily as they could go 0-4.
But Utah has played well against middle-of-the-pack teams like the Hawks, Mavericks and Pelicans and will get to tackle the Celtics within the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena, so hopefully they’ll lean more towards the former record rather than the latter.