Utah Jazz vs. New York Knicks: Keys to a two-game winning streak

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Derrick Favors #15 of the Utah Jazz shoots the ball during the game against the New York Knicks on November 15, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. 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 Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Derrick Favors #15 of the Utah Jazz shoots the ball during the game against the New York Knicks on November 15, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. 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 Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Utah Jazz will look to keep up their winning ways on Friday night as they host the New York Knicks in a nationally-televised showdown.

If you’re having a hard time remembering the last time that the Utah Jazz won two games in a row, don’t feel bad. No, your memory isn’t failing you, it’s just been a really long time. Utah’s last pair of consecutive wins came back on December 1st and 4th over the New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards, respectively.

Since then, the Utah Jazz have only won five games in all, which has made for a really long and brutal month and a half stretch. However, the good news is that the Utah Jazz got back to their winning ways on Wednesday night, even earning a rare road victory. Sure, it was against the West’s worst team, the Sacramento Kings, but it was much-needed and impressive nonetheless.

Despite the lackluster competition, the Jazz were clearly clicking, executing well on both ends of the floor and, for the first time in a while, actually looked like they were having fun out there. Hopefully the big-time win over the Kings will serve as a confidence booster that helps propel the Jazz back to a higher level of play that they’ve shown to be more than capable of reaching at times during the season.

Fortunately, they’ll have a pretty dang good chance to ride the high and get a second straight win as they’ll take on the mediocre New York Knicks tonight in Salt Lake City. The Knicks looked like they might be relatively decent to start out the year and even beat the Jazz in the two teams’ first meeting, but they’ve slowly gone downhill from there to find themselves at 20-25, good for 10th place in the East.

So as this pair of 10th place teams does battle this evening on a nationally-televised ESPN bout, we should be in for a good game, but also one where Utah ought to be more than capable of coming out on top, especially if they play like they did against Sacramento. If they’re able to match that effectiveness as well as excel in these following key areas, they’ll have a great chance of finally earning consecutive wins for the first time since early December.