Utah Jazz 2017-18 Week Seven Outlook, Predictions

The Utah Jazz have played much better of late and will look to carry that momentum over into the seventh week of the 2017-18 season.

The Utah Jazz showed some significant signs of life in their sixth week of the 2017-18 campaign as they bounced back from a disappointing loss to the Philadelphia 76ers to go on to blow out both the Chicago Bulls (110-80) and the Milwaukee Bucks (121-108) in consecutive contests. Utah’s offense was firing on all cylinders in both games and the Jazz finally played with some much-needed energy.

Hopefully those pair of consecutive victories, the first such since nearly a month ago, will serve as a sign of good things to come and not just an anomaly. The win over Milwaukee was easily one of the most fun wins of the season, but it’s unlikely that Utah is able to replicate their hot shooting from that night (56.8 percent from the field and 56.2 percent from three) on any sort of consistent basis.

Nevertheless, it’s certainly feasible that the Jazz could be turning the corner. After struggling for much of the season so far, they seem to have built some momentum and may have found a bit of a groove. They managed to go 2-1 last week, which is actually the record I had picked them at, but I pinned them as winners in the game against the Sixers and losers against the Bucks, so my projection record was a measly 1-2.

Therefore, the Jazz and I now find ourselves dead even once again at 9-11, which in the case of the Jazz, just so happens to be good for eighth place in the West.

If they’re able to build off of the success they had in their last two games, then they could be in store for a nice little run in Week Seven. As I mentioned just yesterday, three of Utah’s upcoming four games are against teams that are struggling mightily with injury woes and two of those contests will come to start out the week.

Of course, the Jazz are far from fully healthy either, but their opponents’ issues will certainly raise Utah’s chances at victory. They’ll start off the week by closing out the home stand against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday. Then they’ll head out on the road for a single game against the LA Clippers on Thursday before returning back home to take on the New Orleans Pelicans on the second night of a back-to-back on Friday.

Each one of those is very much winnable and if Utah can play as they did against Chicago and Milwaukee, they could potentially find themselves above .500 by the end of the week. With that being the case, let’s take a closer look at what they’ll be up against.

11/28 Utah vs. Denver

8:00 pm MT – ESPN

Opponent record: 11-8

Season series: Jazz lead 1-0

The Utah Jazz started out the season against what many supposed would be a much-improved Denver Nuggets team that would likely be one of the squads to push the Jazz out of the playoff picture. After a solid season last year that saw them narrowly miss the postseason, plenty of promising young guns and newly acquired All-Star Paul Millsap, many were very high on the Nuggets’ chances this year.

However, Utah was able to finish that first contest strong and come away with a phenomenal early win over the division rival Denver Nuggets. Since then, however, there’s been little doubt that the Nuggets have been the better team as Millsap and Co. were starting to put the pieces together while the Jazz were struck by injury after injury and began struggling immensely.

But the injury bug hasn’t been too picky about which teams it wants to inflict, as it also struck the Denver Nuggets recently, delivering a devastating blow to Paul Millsap – a torn ligament in his wrist that will take surgery and approximately three months to recover from. That’s obviously a big loss for Denver and could dramatically impact them moving forward.

With such being the case, they’ll have to adapt pretty significantly, but they’re a resilient team with plenty of other talented players such as Nikola Jokic and Gary Harris, and they just so happen to be extremely deep at the power forward position (just ask Trey Lyles). Therefore, while this Nuggets team is down, they certainly aren’t out, and will likely present an extremely tough challenge for the Jazz regardless.

Nevertheless, Utah seemed to match up very well against Denver in the season opener and although Jokic will likely have a nice edge without Rudy Gobert around to hold him in check, his defense is less than stirring and I think Derrick Favors will be able to build some confidence against him. Also, since the contest will be played on the Jazz’s home court, I predict that they’re going to be able to build on their recent hot play and find a way to beat a Nuggets team that is likely still adapting in wake of the loss of Paul Millsap.

The Jazz will have to get off to a good start as this high-octane Denver team has the ability to bury its opponents if given too much of a headstart, but Utah earned a come from behind victory last time so they’re certainly capable of outmatching them as long as they keep it close.

My Prediction: Jazz Win

Final Score: Utah 111, Denver 103

11/30 Utah at LA Clippers

8:30 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass

Opponent record: 7-11

Season series: Clippers lead 1-0

The Clippers have been an interesting team so far this season as they started out the year a perfect 4-0 which included a dominant win over the Utah Jazz, which led to many thinking they were bound for an exhilarating 2017-18 season. However, shortly thereafter, the Clips went on to lose nine straight games in which they looked absolutely outmatched, even by some less than daunting opponents.

They’ve since bounced back with a pair of wins, but given that they came over the horrific Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings, they’re little to be proud of. In other words, the Clippers have looked extremely poor of late and even though this particular game will be played on the road, the Jazz should be able to take advantage.

Of course, one of the biggest issues facing the Clippers has been injuries as they’ve already lost Patrick Beverley for the season and are also without Danilo Gallinari and Milos Teodosic for the time being. With so many injuries and given that all of their former closers such as Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick are no longer with the team (although Blake Griffin has come through in the clutch this season on a couple occasions), they’re likely in for a struggle the rest of the season.

Therefore, hopefully the Jazz will be able to come out strong and take advantage of a wounded and reeling LA team. It’s no secret that Utah has been abysmal on the road so far this season (1-7) and that during the regular season last year the Clippers largely had their way with the Jazz, but I still think they put it together enough to come out on top in this one.

The Clips have truly looked pathetic of late and were it not for a couple of gimme games against the Hawks and Kings, they could very well still be in the middle of a lengthy losing streak. Utah will definitely have to come out with energy and focus on the road, though, but I believe they’ll be able to do just that.

My Prediction: Jazz Win

Final Score: Utah 97, Los Angeles 91

12/1 Utah vs. New Orleans

7:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass

Opponent record: 11-9

Season series: Tied 0-0

The New Orleans Pelicans have gotten off to a pretty solid start and will likely be one of many teams jockeying with the Utah Jazz for a playoff spot or playoff positioning all season long, which makes Friday’s bout all the more important.

The DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis experiment is starting to look more and more like it can work as both players are putting up exceptional stats (26.1 points and 12.9 rebounds for Boogie and 25.7 points and 11.1 rebounds for the Brow on red-hot shooting) and the Pels have won three of their last four including big-time wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Historically, the Jazz have fared well against both of those players, but as the two become more accustomed to one another as teammates and with no Rudy Gobert in the mix for Utah, this could be an enormous challenge. Not only that, but the Jazz will come into this game on the wrong end of a back-to-back after playing a late game in LA the night before against the Clippers.

I’m inclined to think that the Utah Jazz will have a very good shot of winning this contest considering how well they’ve played on their home court and due to how well they’ve matched up against the New Orleans Pelicans of late. However, because of New Orleans’ improvements, momentum from recent big wins and the fact that Utah will likely come in fatigued, I’m actually going to give the Pelicans the edge in this one.

There’s no questioning that New Orleans has a formidable frontcourt and without Rudy Gobert available, the Jazz could have a very hard time containing them in this contest. I like Derrick Favors’ chances against either Anthony Davis or DeMarcus Cousins, but there’s no way he can take both and the Jazz have very little big man options off the bench that can provide adequate backup.

My Prediction: Pelicans Win

Final Score: New Orleans 112, Utah 98

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Therefore, I’m once again pinning the Utah Jazz to go 2-1 on the week. Obviously, 3-0 would be a better mark (and it’s one that I believe to be quite attainable despite not predicting as much), but if Utah can keep having weeks where they go even slightly above .500, they’ll find themselves crawling up the standings quite quickly, especially in a Western Conference that has been rather lackluster compared to its illustrious expectations.

The Jazz got off to a bit of a slow start last year and dealt with several injuries, but Quin Snyder and Co. were still able to get things turned around and find significant success. While I don’t know if this team will be capable of reaching such great heights, there’s no questioning that they’ve already started to show some signs of righting the ship and I’m confident that Coach Snyder truly can find a way to help them continue to get better.

Building off what they’ve done and finding success in a relatively comfortable Week Seven could be just the springboard this team needs to continue its rise up the standings throughout the remainder of the season.