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Utah Jazz: Northwest Division Comparison – March

By Jared Woodcox

Mar 3, 2017; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward (20) reacts after a dunk in the third quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Utah Jazz defeated the Brooklyn Nets 112-97. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 3, 2017; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward (20) reacts after a dunk in the third quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Utah Jazz defeated the Brooklyn Nets 112-97. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 2, 2017; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) speaks with Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (27) during the first half of the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 2, 2017; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) speaks with Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (27) during the first half of the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports /

Portland Trail Blazers

Current Record: 25-35

Standings: 4th in Division, 9th in Conference

I’ve said it plenty of times, but I’ll say it again – the Portland Trail Blazers have been an enormous disappointment this season. Despite advancing to the second round of the playoffs last year, they’ve been unable to put together any semblance of an actual playoff-caliber team and find themselves quite a ways behind the Denver Nuggets for a playoff spot.

The Blazers took a huge dive in February going just 2-7 after things had begun to look up in January with an 8-7 month. Considering that nosedive, it’s almost hard to believe that the Blazers are still in ninth place, just one slot and 2.5 games out of playoff contention.

Yet, to be fair, Portland did have a pretty daunting schedule in the month of February that overall eases up pretty significantly in March. With that being the case, they may have an excellent chance of surging in the coming weeks and moving into that eighth seed.

In fact, they did happen to start out the month with an incredible win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, so if that’s indicative of the play we’ll see out of Portland moving forward, they may be in good shape.

Nevertheless, they’ve had ups and downs all season long and quite frankly I never would’ve guessed that they’d be out of the playoff mix for this long. Therefore, while I believe they may very well be the most talented of the bottom three Northwest Division teams, their inconsistency and lack of defensive prowess may very well doom them to fourth in the division and out of the playoff mix.

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