Utah Jazz vs. Minnesota Timberwolves: Keys to the Game

Despite a disappointing loss last night, the Utah Jazz should still be in good shape to get back on track as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight.

For some reason it seems like every time the Utah Jazz are just beginning to elevate the hopes and dreams of their fans, they find a way to bring everything crashing back down on them. After playing so well in the first two games after the All-Star break, last night’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was just another such example of that.

Once again the Jazz proved incapable of beating a fellow Western Conference playoff foe as they fell to the Thunder by a narrow 109-106 margin. Not only was the loss itself a letdown after how well Utah had been playing previously, but within the game itself, the Jazz staved off a 13-point deficit to regain the lead in the final minutes of the game, only to falter down the stretch and ultimately fall to a tough Thunder team.

Nevertheless, the Jazz are still solidly in fourth place (for now) and regardless of whether the Clippers win or lose tonight, so long as the Jazz take care of business in their upcoming game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they will remain in that spot.

Yet, while the Wolves are currently in 12th place in the West with a record of 24-36, they boast an incredible amount of young talent and have given the Jazz their share of problems so far this season.

The first contest between the two teams was a seesaw affair that saw the Jazz manage to pull away late with a strong fourth quarter. The second match-up was Minnesota’s for the taking as they held a nine-point lead late in the game. However, instead of sealing the deal, the Timberwolves managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (that is how the saying goes, right?) by allowing Utah to end the game on an 11-0 run to sneak by with the win.

Therefore, while on paper and with a glance at the standings one might expect the Jazz to be heavy favorites and quite easily win tonight’s contest against the Wolves, there’s no guarantee that such will be the case.

Despite what the close score in yesterday’s game against the Thunder indicates, Utah looked out of sync and quite frankly pretty ugly for most of the night. Thus it’ll be important that the Jazz play much better tonight as well as come out with plenty of energy given that they’ll be playing in the second night of a back-to-back against a quick and athletic Wolves team.

Fortunately for the Jazz, both of the tightly contested games against Minnesota this year came on the road, so it will be nice for Utah to finally get to take them on within the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Wolves are a dismal 9-18 on the road, so as long as Utah can get back to their winning ways from last week and take care of business in the following key areas, they should be in good shape to come away with a win.