Utah Jazz Week Twenty-Four Outlook, Predictions

The Utah Jazz face an important three-game stretch as they get set for the second to last week of regular season action.

As if it wasn’t already brutally clear, it’s go time for the Utah Jazz. With just five games left in the regular season, each contest is critically important for their postseason seeding and their hopes of earning home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

As Purple & Blues Contributor Hayden Van de Maat pointed out yesterday, considering how the standings are currently, the Jazz would need 52 wins to clinch that fourth spot, which would require them to go 5-0. That of course is going to be extremely difficult with the tough opponents they have ahead of them beginning with a three-game slate in the second-to-last week of the season.

Hopefully the Clippers help out the Jazz and drop a game or two out of their remaining four contests, but with no guarantee there, Utah needs to take advantage of three contests this week against opponents with records worse than theirs.

Aside from the loss to the Spurs yesterday afternoon, the Jazz had a solid week, defeating each of the previous teams they faced – the Pelicans, Kings and Wizards. I had actually predicted the Jazz to go 2-2 last week, so it was good to see them exceed my expectations. Given that I correctly predicted three out of the four contests, I was able to match my prediction record with Utah’s record of 3-1 last week, so while Utah improved to 47-30, I managed to move up to 50-27.

Utah will have a chance to get to 50 wins themselves this week if they can go undefeated in this upcoming stretch. The Jazz will begin the week on Tuesday at home against the Portland Trail Blazers who have recently fought their way up to a .500 record and are solidly in the eighth and final playoff spot in the West after building a two-game lead over the Denver Nuggets.

Then Utah will play a second home contest as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday. Minnesota blasted the Jazz in the two teams’ previous contest, but with the T-Wolves now being officially out of playoff contention, there’s a good chance that a highly motivated Jazz team will benefit from taking on a team with little left to play for.

Finally, the Jazz will end the week taking on Portland once again, but this time it will be on the road and on the back end of a back-to-back on Saturday night. Fortunately, these three games should actually be easier than Utah’s last two which will be against Golden State and San Antonio (assuming both teams are still playing at full strength at that point).

Therefore, Utah should have an excellent opportunity to go undefeated in the week ahead and hopefully put themselves in a great position to close out the season strong. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what they’re up against in Week 24 of NBA action.