Utah Jazz vs. Clippers Showdown Inevitable, Deciding Home Court All That Remains

The Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers are set to meet in the first round of the playoffs. The question that remains, however, is which team will earn home court advantage?

The waning moments of the 2016-17 NBA regular season are upon us and little by little the playoff picture is becoming clear. First the Rockets clinched the third seed with a win over the Nuggets on Wednesday, then Golden State clinched the top seed with their victory over the Suns and San Antonio’s loss to the Lakers that same night, slotting those two teams as the first and second seeds, respectively.

From there, the Memphis Grizzlies clinched the seventh seed on Friday night with their win over the Knicks and the Thunder officially lost hope for the fifth seed after falling to the Suns last night, but own the tiebreaker with Memphis and thus can’t finish worse than sixth. Thus, the Spurs-Grizzlies series is set as is Rockets-Thunder.

The James Harden vs. Russell Westbrook MVP candidate match-up will be thrilling and of course the Grizzlies and Spurs are quite familiar with one another, so it’s shaping up to be a fun first round in the Western Conference.

Of course the Warriors are still waiting to see whether they’ll face the Nuggets or the Blazers in the first round, but beyond that all the other match-ups are set as the fourth and fifth seeds will go to the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. The only question is, which of those two teams will receive the fourth seed and the coveted home court advantage that comes with it?

Fortunately for the Jazz, they currently hold a one-game advantage over the Clippers and as a result, control their own destiny. Unfortunately, though, their remaining three games are against Portland on the road in the second night of a back-to-back, on the road against the league-leading Golden State Warriors and at home against the San Antonio Spurs.

That’s a daunting trio of games and if Utah loses even one contest, then the Clippers will in turn be the ones in the driver’s seat given that they own the tiebreaker over the Jazz. However, LA has no cake walk to end the year either. They’ll be on the road tonight against a Spurs team who appears to be rolling out their regular starters with the exception of Danny Green who’s sidelined with a left quad contusion.

Given San Antonio’s tendency to rest players at the end of the year, especially with their playoff seed already clinched, there was some concern among Jazz fans that such would be the case in today’s battle against the Clippers.

However, as I alluded to earlier this week, after suffering a disappointing loss to the Lakers on Wednesday, it’s likely that San Antonio wanted to log at least one more convincing win with all of their starters in action and with tonight’s battle being nationally televised on ABC, they probably figured this was as good an opportunity to do so as any, especially to avoid more of the drama associated with resting players during prime time games.

After the game tonight, the Clippers will host the Rockets and Kings to close out the season. Houston has bullied LA so far this season with two commanding victories which saw the Rockets score over 120 points in each contest. Therefore, assuming Houston comes out at full strength and ready to play rather than rest players or conserve energy for the postseason, the Clips could be in for a rough finish.

If LA drops one of those two games to either the Spurs or Rockets, then the Jazz will be able to lose one of their remaining games and still hold onto the fourth seed. Given that Utah manhandled the Blazers earlier in the week and that by the time April 12th rolls around, the Spurs could very well be resting guys for a final contest of the year on the road, it would seem the game against Golden State on Monday would provide Utah’s most likely risk of defeat.

However, Steph Curry is out today against the Pelicans with a knee contusion, ironically on the same day as Kevin Durant makes his return. It will be interesting to see what decisions the Warriors make with their stars to close out the season, especially with the one-seed already clinched. Whatever they decide, there’s no debating that it could very well affect Utah’s chances of reaching the fourth seed.

Regardless of how things play out in these final three games of the season, the one thing we know for sure is that the Jazz and Clippers will indeed face one another in the first round of the playoffs. This is a match-up that many Jazz fans were hoping wouldn’t come to fruition, nevertheless reality can be a hard pill to swallow.

To say the Jazz have struggled against the Clippers would be a vast understatement. Not only did LA win the season series three games to one with each of their victories coming in blowout fashion, but the Jazz are just 3-18 against the Clippers over the last six seasons. Simply put, Utah has been unable to effectively match-up against them and the team has quite honestly appeared to suffer from a lack of confidence each time they’ve taken the court against LA.

That’s a trend that will have to change immediately, of course, as these two teams are officially destined to face one another in the first round of the playoffs. Given that the Jazz have struggled so mightily against LA as it is, it’s absolutely vital that they seek any kind of advantage they can in order to be able to gain an edge in the match-up.

The most crucial of these would be to get the fourth seed and earn home court advantage so that they could play the first two games of the series within the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena. Utah has historically boasted a daunting home court advantage, especially in the playoffs, and they’ll need that in this series.

With the passionate crowd behind them, there’s a much better chance of Utah coming out strong and hopefully eliminating their apparent mental block against the Clippers for the remainder of the series. Utah’s lone win over LA this season was in Salt Lake and if this series happens to go to seven games, you can bet that being able to wrap the season up there as well will be absolutely vital.

So the team that almost all season long has appeared to be one of the least favorable match-ups for the Jazz will indeed be their first round opponent. I quite honestly would have preferred either the Rockets or the Thunder, but Utah will have to simply deal with the hand they’ve been dealt.

The fact of the matter is that while it’s a great accomplishment to see this team bust their way back into the postseason, it’s clear that a first or second round exit isn’t this team’s final goal by any means.

Gordon Hayward has made it clear that he wants to be where he can win. His teammates echo that sentiment. Therefore, regardless of who Utah would have ended up facing in the first round, if they truly want to find success in this league, they’ll eventually have to find a way to beat elite teams that are even better than the Clippers such as the Warriors and Spurs.

So while it’s likely true that playing LA isn’t an ideal match-up for the Jazz, given that Utah’s championship hopes are basically nonexistent this season anyway, playing against a good Clippers team that will offer quite a challenge in the first round will be an excellent test for the Jazz. If they hope to one day reach their championship aspirations, then they’ll have to prove that they can win even in difficult or uncomfortable situations.

Rising victorious in a best-of-seven series against LA would certainly fit that criteria and likely put the Jazz on an excellent path to make even greater strides in seasons to come.

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For this season, though, Utah needs to focus simply on what they can control, which is earning that fourth seed that will give them a much-needed home court advantage over a tough Clipper team.

With just three games left in the regular season, that goal is well within reach. The Utah Jazz just need to go out and seal the deal.