Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz will face off against the Los Angeles Clippers tonight in what will be a battle for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

The Utah Jazz have enjoyed being securely in the fourth seed in the West for just over a week and it’s been a pretty good feeling. After taking full custody of the spot, the Jazz were flying high and rolled to two of their most dominant performances of the season against the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Pelicans.

However, that feeling quickly faded as Utah has now dropped two straight games, first to the Dallas Mavericks and then to the Boston Celtics. The former saw them fall after blowing a big lead and the latter was a wire-to-wire loss in which they never even seemed to have a chance. While both were different, they were about the two worst kinds of losses you can have.

Meanwhile, the former fourth place Los Angeles Clippers who had their spot taken by the Jazz have played well enough to win two straight and remain right within striking distance of Utah as they currently sit just a half-game back.

And of course as fate would have it, they will be coming into Salt Lake City tonight to try to retake what was once theirs.

The Clippers are shorthanded with Chris Paul recovering from a recent thumb surgery, but they’re still stocked with All-Star level talent in the likes of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan while featuring solid role players such as JJ Redick and Jazz killer Jamal Crawford.

And you can bet that they’ll know exactly what’s at stake when they take on the Jazz in tonight’s contest and will be prepared to fire on all cylinders.

That doesn’t bode well for the Jazz who have greatly struggled against winning teams, particularly in the Western Conference. Against teams with a winning record in the West, the Jazz are currently just 4-9 and to find their last win against such a squad, you have to go back almost two months to Utah’s 82-73 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on December 18th.

And while LA isn’t nearly as threatening without Chris Paul, they’re still a solid team, the like of which has give the Jazz real problems of late. Not to mention, as I brought up in my week preview piece from last night, the Jazz are just 2-16 against the Clippers since the 2011-12 season, so that’s a discouraging figure as well.

Therefore, if Utah hopes to keep the Clippers at bay and maintain a hold of the fourth seed in the West, it will be absolutely vital that they perform well in the following areas.