Utah Jazz at Oklahoma City Thunder: Keys to the Game

Coming off of a big win over the Houston Rockets, the Utah Jazz will look to prove themselves once again as they get set to visit the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow.

Is it just me, or is it starting to feel like each and every game the Utah Jazz play is the new most important game of the year? Coming off an impressive road win over the third place Houston Rockets on Wednesday, the Utah Jazz are turning around and visiting another formidable playoff foe in the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow afternoon in what feels like a crucial contest.

After that, they’ll head back home to play the Los Angeles Clippers, who they’re trying to ward off from taking the fourth seed, on Monday. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

The fact of the matter is, there’s a reason why each and every game feels so important for the Jazz. Not only are they in the midst of a closely contested Western Conference playoff race, but keeping things in an even tighter perspective, they find themselves in a stretch of seven straight games against current playoff foes.

That’s a daunting way to start off the final stretch run of the season during the month of March, but so far the Jazz are 1-0 during that tough slate and will look to ride that momentum into OKC tomorrow and make it 2-0 while logging their fifth straight win overall.

But of course it won’t be easy as the Thunder have given the Jazz problems nearly all season long and thanks to their impressive win over the Spurs last night combined with Memphis’ four-game slide which has seen them lose to both the Mavericks and the Nets, OKC now actually finds themselves in sixth place in the West.

However, the timing of Oklahoma City’s win over San Antonio was somewhat odd given that, like the Grizzlies, the Thunder had been in a bit of a slump themselves prior to the contest, losing four straight games made up of losses to the Blazers (twice), Mavericks and Suns.

I’ve said it several times before, but OKC’s heavy reliance on electrifying point guard Russell Westbrook has made them able to knock off the best of the best, but also capable of losing to some of the team’s worst when Westbrook has an off night or simply can’t do it all. The recent win over the Spurs and loss to Phoenix are perfect examples of that volatility.

Yet unfortunately for Utah, Westbrook has been on point in two of the three contests against the Jazz, leading his team to a two and three-point victory, respectively. The good news is that the Jazz had great opportunities to win both of those games had they been just a little sharper in a few areas or held Westbrook in check just slightly better. It comes as no surprise that in the one game where they were able to slow Russell, Utah won by 20 points.

Therefore, with the Jazz coming into the contest off of two full days of rest, hopefully that will allow them to be fresh and rejuvenated, giving them a boost to stop Westbrook and Co. who had been floundering a bit prior to the win over San Antonio.

Of course health is also a concern as George Hill, Derrick Favors and Shelvin Mack all sat out for the game against Houston. Nevertheless, Utah’s been able to weather the injury storm all season long and still managed to eke out a win over the Rockets despite being shorthanded, so their confidence ought to be high.

Thus with a five-game winning streak on the line and an important opportunity to tie the regular season series with the Thunder, Utah will be in for what could be construed as the most important game of the season to date in tomorrow’s contest. If they hope to come away victorious, it will be vital that they step up their game in the following key areas.