Utah Jazz Week Twenty-Three Outlook, Predictions

The 2016-17 NBA regular season is quickly coming to a close and the Utah Jazz are in desperate need of a solid week to break out of their current slump.

Last week was far from kind to the Utah Jazz. After coming into the week on two straight losses, the Jazz fell to a Pacers team playing on the second night of a back-to-back to extend that losing streak to three. Utah then went on to host the Knicks in what turned out to be a much less than convincing victory over a bad team that came largely thanks to a career night from Rudy Gobert.

Finally, the Jazz closed the week in what was likely the most disappointing fashion imaginable. On the road against the Los Angeles Clippers in what was Utah’s most important game of the season so far, the Jazz didn’t just lose the game, but played with little energy and no sense of urgency as they were easily dispatched by the foe nearest them in the Western Conference standings.

Fortunately, overall the Clippers haven’t played well of late either, thus the loss didn’t drop the Jazz out of fourth place. Then, LA dropped yet another surprising game on Sunday to the Sacramento Kings which allowed Utah to once again take a one-game lead over the Clips for fourth.

Although it was a lucky break, the Jazz can’t count on the Clippers to continue to drop winnable contests and instead need to start building a lead by taking care of business and winning games of their own.

After going just 1-2 last week, the Jazz brought their record to 44-29. I correctly predicted the win over the Knicks and the loss to the Clippers, but hadn’t foreseen the loss to the Pacers. Therefore, I went 2-1 for the week, bringing my predictions record to 47-26 on the year.

But hopefully Week 23 will be significantly kinder to the Jazz. The first half of the week will be much easier than what they’ve faced of late, so ideally they’ll be able to get off to a fast and effective start to boost their morale and get the team clicking again, then ride that momentum to close out the week strong.

With just nine games left in the regular season, the Jazz will have to be at their absolute best if they hope to stave off the Clippers and earn home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They certainly have the tougher schedule of the two, but if Utah can right the ship this week, they could still put themselves in a great position to earn that spot.