Utah Jazz Week Twenty-Three Outlook, Predictions

4/2 Utah at San Antonio

1:30 pm MT – ABC

Opponent record: 56-16

Season series: Tied 1-1

Unfortunately for the Jazz, after those first three games of the week, the remainder of their season turns brutal in a hurry. The final six games consist of two games against the Spurs (beginning with the one I’ll detail here), a game against the Warriors, two games against a Portland team that will be fighting desperately for the eight-spot in the West and a contest against a dangerous Timberwolves team.

Therefore, it’s of the utmost importance that the Jazz play well in the previous three games before heading into this Sunday afternoon match-up on ABC against the San Antonio Spurs. I’m scared to even bring this up, because obviously no Jazz fan wants this to be the case, but depending on how the final nine games of the season go, this game could end up being a first-round playoff preview.

But let’s push that thought far, far away from our minds for the moment and just focus on the task at hand. We all know what we’re getting in the San Antonio Spurs and it goes without saying how tough this game is going to be. It feels like forever since the two teams last played and in some ways that kind of is the case.

The Jazz were able to come into San Antonio in early November and steal a win on the Spurs home court for the first time since January 20, 2010, making it Utah’s first victory there in the last ten tries. In a game where Utah simply could not miss, they came away with an astounding 106-91 victory after shooting 50 percent from the field and 48.4 percent from three to hand San Antonio their first loss of the season.

However, just three days later, the Spurs responded about how one would expect, by coming into Salt Lake and running the Jazz out of the building with a 14-point victory.

Thus with the season series knotted at one apiece and with the two teams not having played since early November, it’s somewhat difficult to predict how this game will go. If the Jazz are playing at their best like they did in the first match-up of the season (a game in which Gordon Hayward did not play, I might add) then they certainly have the tools both offensively and defensively to give this Spurs team problems.

But if the Jazz play as they have for the better part of two weeks, then there’s no way that they’ll stand even the slightest chance against a battle-hardened and daunting Spurs team.

So, it will likely be much easier to make a prediction about this game after seeing how Utah plays in the first three games of the week. Hopefully the Jazz can start to get some of their recent kinks worked out and come in with momentum against the Spurs. However, even if such is the case, I have a hard time believing the Jazz will be able to knock off the Spurs in San Antonio for a second time this season.

There’s a reason why it took Utah 11 tries before they finally defeated the Spurs on their home court – it’s an extremely tough thing to do. Therefore, I’m going to predict that San Antonio comes away with the victory in what will hopefully at the very least be a competitive bout between two playoff squads.

My Prediction: Spurs Win

Final Score: San Antonio 101, Utah 94

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We’ve reached an interesting point of the season for the Utah Jazz. They’ve had an incredible year up to this point that has seen them go 44-29 where they reside firmly in fourth place in the West. However, rather than now coming into their own and preparing to peak for the playoffs, the Jazz seem to be in a bigger state of disarray than ever.

Rudy Gobert recently called out some of his teammates for not competing and that lackluster effort has certainly been on display the past two weeks. Therefore, with home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs at stake, the Jazz will need to undergo a major reversal from their latest play if they hope to get back on track in Week 23 and make the proper preparations to storm into the playoffs and be poised to make some noise.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com