1/12 Utah at Charlotte
5:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass
Opponent record: 15-23
Season series: Tied 0-0
To say the Charlotte Hornets have underachieved this season would be a drastic understatement. Although certainly not presumed as an elite contender by any means, the Hornets still have a considerable amount of talent on their team in the likes of Kemba Walker, Dwight Howard and Nicolas Batum, not to mention a heralded coach in Steve Clifford (although he’s missed over a month with health issues which could be a reason for some of the struggles).
You’d think with the pieces they have, they’d be right in the thick of playoff contention in a less than daunting Eastern Conference. Nevertheless, while the year is still far from over, they find themselves five games out of eighth place and have been nearly as bad as the Jazz on the road with a record of 5-13. That leaves them with a pretty significant hill to climb with only half of the season left to do it.
But the Hornets have played better of late as they’ve won three of their last four contests including a shocking victory over the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. Sure, Steph Curry didn’t play in the contest, but it was a mind-blowing victory nonetheless.
"We put together a nice little road trip. Being able to get some days off, get some time to practice which we haven't had in awhile, go over some things, fix some things, just try and improve as much as we can, it's pretty good for us." - Kemba Walker #BuzzCity #NBAVote https://t.co/L6yemW2Klb
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) January 9, 2018
Therefore, as would be the Jazz’s luck, it looks as if they may be facing off against the Hornets at just the wrong time. Not only that, but Utah has struggled to contain Kemba Walker, Charlotte’s leading scorer, in the past. And despite somewhat of a down year for him up to this point, he’s still more than capable of going off on any given night, especially when being covered by a weak defender like Ricky Rubio.
Meanwhile, Dwight Howard may give the Rudy Gobert-less Jazz some trouble and Jeremy Lamb has been on quite a tear of late. Combine all that with how much Utah has struggled on the road and their chances are looking less than favorable.
Still, the Hornets are just 15-23 so, much like the Jazz, they’ve dropped a number of winnable games themselves. Not only that, but while the win over Golden State was undoubtedly impressive, the other victories in their recent hot streak include games against the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, two dismal opponents.
Thus, I’m a little split on this one. The Jazz certainly should be able to win, but when playing on the road, you just never know what team is going to show up anymore. Therefore, in an attempt to utilize my often effective reverse-jinx, I’m going to pick the Jazz to lose this contest in hopes that it will result in them proving me wrong.
My Prediction: Hornets Win
Final Score: Charlotte 98, Utah 95
Next: Pistons, Blazers presumably join Utah Jazz in Mirotic pursuit
The Utah Jazz are well overdue for a turnaround and if they do indeed go 0-2 this week as I’ve projected, that will put them at 16-26, 10 games under .500. That’s an absolutely brutal spot to be in and one that will probably be tough to recover from, especially considering that it would come as a result of losing to two beatable teams.
I’m hoping Utah can get some momentum and start to right the ship considering that they’ve had two days off to prepare for these games, but I’m not exactly counting on it. If the Jazz’s road woes continue, at least we can find solace in knowing that the ever-exciting trade season is upon us and that Utah may be able to swing a deal that will benefit them in the future.
“In the future” being the key phrase there, because if Utah doesn’t snap out of this funk soon, that will indeed be all they have left to look forward to.