Utah Jazz at Oklahoma City Thunder: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz have the opportunity to notch a big win against their most competitive divisional foe as they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow.

The Utah Jazz have looked extremely sharp coming out of the gates following the All-Star break as they notched two big road wins against the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards. The latter of those two was against a Wizards team who had been red hot of late, especially on their home court, but the Jazz still managed to make light work of them.

However, the Jazz have fared much better against Eastern Conference foes than against Western Conference powerhouses, so they’ll be in for a tall task as they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first time in their building this season. As much as it pains me to bring this up, the Jazz haven’t beaten a Western Conference playoff team since December 18th, so they desperately need to get one in tomorrow’s contest.

Of course, Utah also hasn’t been fully healthy for most of the year, but have looked rejuvenated after the All-Star break and as soon as Rodney Hood gets back to 100 percent, this Jazz team could very well transform into the powerhouse Jazz fans expected them to be prior to the season’s start. That is, of course, as long as no one else gets hurt… But let’s not go there.

Yet, the Thunder are undoubtedly a dangerous team who also managed to improve at the trade deadline by adding two solid role players in Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott. Then of course there’s the incredible Russell Westbrook, OKC’s walking triple-double, that the Jazz will absolutely have to keep in check.

Utah did an incredible job against him in the two teams’ first contest and therefore it came as no surprise that the Jazz came away with a 20-point win, whereas in the second contest where Westbrook was allowed to flourish, Utah lost in heartbreaking fashion.

However, it’s important to remember that the most recent loss came in the middle of a grueling stretch of games for the Jazz while the Thunder came in off of four days of rest. With that being the case, to be quite honest, it’s incredible that the Jazz were able to hang in as well as they did and only lose by two.

Now in tomorrow’s contest with both teams coming in well-rested and confident, having both gone 2-0 since the break, we should see a quite level playing field that should result in an incredible game.

And while there’s no questioning that the Jazz have struggled against playoff-caliber teams so far this season, I have a good feeling that as long as they play like they did in their two most recent games (minus the turnovers in Washington), and focus on the following key aspects, then they should have an excellent chance to come away with a big statement win over a tough divisional rival.