Utah Jazz 2017-18 Week Two Outlook, Predictions

The Utah Jazz will look to build on their formidable start to the season with a trio of winnable games in their second week of NBA action.

The Utah Jazz got off to a surprisingly promising start in their first week of the 2017-18 campaign as they defeated both the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder – two divisional rivals that many have pinned as playoff teams – and hung in with the much-improved Minnesota Timberwolves until the waning moments when a costly turnover ended up being the difference in the game. Those performances resulted in the Jazz starting off the season at a solid 2-1.

I’ve been optimistic about the Jazz this upcoming season, but even with my high hopes I had projected Utah to go 1-2 in their first week. I thought that given the new faces they’re having to adapt to and the strength of their opponents, at least two of the three would prove too daunting for them, but boy was I wrong. From how solid the Jazz looked it would have been a closer guess to pick them to go 3-0.

But, alas, since I correctly picked them to defeat the Nuggets and lose to the Wolves, but missed on my prediction in their contest against the Thunder, I matched Utah’s record with my projections from last week as I went 2-1 as well.

There truly appears to be a lot to be excited about, especially after Utah’s dominant win over a supposed powerhouse Thunder team, and hopefully that solid play carries over to the second week of NBA action. The Jazz have a great opportunity to improve their record even further as they’ll take on two of the worst opponents in the league this week.

However, they’ll start off against a solid opponent in the Los Angeles Clippers who, despite the low level of competition they’ve faced, have looked extremely solid in the season’s early going. After taking on the Clippers on Tuesday, the Jazz will go on to play one of those aforementioned lackluster opponents, the Phoenix Suns, on the road on Wednesday. Finally, the Jazz will finish up the week with a home contest against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.

While the game against the Clippers will be a great measuring stick game, the following two ought to be relatively easy wins for the Jazz. Nevertheless, let’s take a deeper look at each contest facing Utah in week two of NBA action before making any assumptions.