Utah Jazz Clinch First Playoff Berth in Five Years

With the Denver Nuggets loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, the Utah Jazz officially end their playoff drought.

The last few weeks of the NBA regular season are an entertaining time to not only follow your own team, but to check on other teams to see how they affect the standings. For weeks Utah Jazz fans have been keeping a close eye on the Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, and especially the Los Angeles Clippers to monitor how much cushion the Jazz have on the coveted fourth seed.

But last week the Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets were added to the list, given that a loss would result in the Jazz mathematically clinching a playoff berth. Let’s take a look at the standings, shall we?

After the Jazz’s home win over the Knicks in the presence of the franchise’s first-ever NBA Finals squad, all Utah needed to get in the playoffs was either the 39th loss for the Blazers (since if Utah lost and Portland won every game for the remainder of the season, the Jazz would have a better record), or the 38th loss for the Denver Nuggets (since worst case scenario, Utah and Denver would be tied in win-loss record but the Jazz own the tiebreaker in inner-conference record).

The Portland Trail Blazers went on to beat the Knicks (who were on the back end of a back-to-back) on Thursday, the Timberwolves on Saturday, and the lowly Lakers squad on Sunday, keeping their playoff hopes alive. It should come as no surprise that a hungry Rip City squad was able to come away with three wins against two rebuilding teams and an imploding Knicks team, especially since their star player Damian Lillard is fighting for legitimacy around the league, both for himself and his team. Here’s how Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley put it:

"Slighted Damian Lillard is the best Damian Lillard. The Portland Trail Blazers can thank their point guard’s All-Star snub for their 10-5 mark since the break.Lillard has been unconscious since being denied the midseason honor for the second straight year. He’s averaging 31.1 points—second in the NBA over this stretch—and hitting 49.5 percent from the field, 43.2 percent outside and 90.9 percent at the line. He’s the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, a run punctuated by a 49-point, 9-of-12 three-point shooting night in Miami on Sunday.“I love the edge that we’re playing with,” Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said, per the Oregonian‘s Joe Freeman. “I think it’s more about the sense of urgency with the playoffs at stake and knowing that we have no margin for error. And I think Damian’s leading the charge with that.”"

The Denver Nuggets won against the Cavs (with the Big 3 playing) on Wednesday night, beat the Pacers on the road Friday night, but lost to the Pelicans last night, moving to 35-38 on the season, thus allowing Utah to clinch a playoff berth.

While this is great news for Jazz Nation to hear, just getting into the playoffs wasn’t the major expectation for this team coming into the year, it was getting into the playoffs with a higher seed than seventh or eighth, and making noise once they got there. As of right now the Jazz look like a near-lock to avoid the seventh seed which would prevent them from having to play against the daunting number two seed that could be the Warriors or Spurs.

While the Jazz are only two and a half games up on the Oklahoma City Thunder, I don’t see the Jazz falling to the sixth seed by the season’s end either, provided that Gordon Hayward makes a speedy return from his right quadriceps contusion.

The seeding to watch is four vs. five, as the Jazz and Clippers continue to duke it out. Although the Jazz hold a one game lead over the Clippers for the fourth seed, the Clippers are the ones who took care of business on Saturday and hold the tiebreaker over the Jazz.

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Not to mention, the rest of the regular season should be a piece of cake for the Clippers in terms of opponents they face. The Jazz will have to be at their best the last nine games of the season and hope the Clippers continue to fumble against teams they should beat, like Sunday’s loss against the Kings.

As the Jazz prepare for the worst and hope for the best coming down the stretch run, you can enjoy funny tweets from FanRag Sports’ Andy Bailey about the Clippers inconsistencies, or tweets from myself describing how anxious Jazz fans are to be back in the postseason.