The J-Notes
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Utah Jazz at Denver Nuggets: Keys to winning season series

By Jared Woodcox

DENVER, CO - DECEMBER 26: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Utah Jazz dunks the ball around Will Barton #5 of the Denver Nuggets against the Denver Nuggets on December 26, 2017 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - DECEMBER 26: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Utah Jazz dunks the ball around Will Barton #5 of the Denver Nuggets against the Denver Nuggets on December 26, 2017 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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DENVER, CO – DECEMBER 26: Will Barton #5 of the Denver Nuggets looks to pass the ball against the Utah Jazz on December 26, 2017 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO – DECEMBER 26: Will Barton #5 of the Denver Nuggets looks to pass the ball against the Utah Jazz on December 26, 2017 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Key #1 – Win the three-point battle

To begin the year, the Utah Jazz were one of the hottest three-point shooting teams in the league. Unfortunately it seems that, especially of late, they’ve only plummeted from there as they’re now just 12th in the league at 37 percent. That free-fall should come as little surprise considering that the Jazz have shot under 30 percent from three in six of their last eight games and are converting on just 28.6 percent of their attempts from deep during that stretch.

That’s really, really bad, and a big reason why the Jazz haven’t been able to compete of late. In fact, the stark difference in Utah’s three-point percentage in wins vs. losses is absolutely mind-blowing. In victories, they’re averaging 43 percent from deep whereas in losses, they’re shooting just 32.4 percent. Rediscovering their shot from behind the arc will obviously be huge if they hope to win tonight and moving forward.

Meanwhile, although the Denver Nuggets have a worse three-point shooting average than the Jazz overall (36.4 percent, 15th in the league), they’ve certainly been better than Utah recently. And one interesting thing about the Nuggets is that they’ve been pretty consistent in their three-point shooting regardless of the games’ results.

In wins, they’re converting on 37.5 percent of their threes while in losses they’re converting on 35.3 percent. In other words, you basically know what you’re going to get from the Nugs, so the Jazz simply have to be ready to top it. In these two teams’ last contest, Denver thoroughly out-shot Utah from behind the arc (36.7 percent vs. 28.6 percent) while also holding the Jazz to an abysmal 32.1 percent shooting from the field.

Thus, Utah’s only chance for coming out on top this time around may very well be to finally catch fire and find success from three-point land.

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