Utah Jazz at San Antonio Spurs: Keys to the Game

Prediction – Spurs 101, Jazz 94

As much as I’d love to predict yet another road win for the Jazz over the Spurs, I’m not sure that it’s going to happen. Yes, Utah has been playing extremely well of late, but San Antonio is a much different animal from the likes of New Orleans, Sacramento and even a solid Washington team.

And although the Jazz have played well, San Antonio is playing even better. Last night’s comeback win over the Thunder was an impressive display of just how daunting this Spurs team can be when they flip that switch and go into what seems like a completely different level. Along with the Thunder, their latest stretch of wins has also seen them knock off the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Jazz should be able to put up a good fight tomorrow and if they play extremely well, they could come out on top, but against a team as dominant as the Spurs, even playing a good game isn’t always enough. Not to mention, with no Favors and the status of Hill up in the air, it will make the Jazz’s chances even more bleak.

Therefore, while I’m hoping that Utah’s recent hot play can continue tomorrow and perhaps even reach a new level, I’m taking the safer bet and predicting that the Spurs will come away with a 101-94 victory.

More from The J-Notes

• With the FIBA World Cup over for Simone Fontecchio, it’s clear he deserves minutes for the Utah Jazz
• Best, Worst and Most likely scenarios for the Utah Jazz this season
• Hoops Hype downplays the significance of the Utah Jazz’s valuable assets
• 3 Utah Jazz players who have the most to gain or lose this season
• Former Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gay is a free agent still and it shouldn’t surprise anyone

Luckily, Utah’s three straight wins over very beatable teams have helped them to keep a strong hold of fourth place and allowed them to maintain a 1.5-game lead over the Los Angeles Clippers. Of course, that’s still not a very large margin by any means and the three recent wins certainly don’t mean that the Jazz can get complacent, but it’s nice to know that they’ve put themselves in a situation where a loss tomorrow won’t doom them.

Still, with Utah’s tough schedule to end the season, if they hope to earn home court advantage, it’s more than likely that they won’t be able to settle for only earning victories over “beatable” teams and instead will have to step up, prove their playoff mettle and defeat one of either San Antonio or Golden State.

And with that being the case, then they might as well get started tomorrow. If their solid energy and play from the Wizards game can carry over to tomorrow afternoon, there’s no reason why they couldn’t pull it off.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com