Utah Jazz 2017-18 Week 15 Outlook, Predictions

The Utah Jazz will face a challenging three-game Eastern Conference road trip in their fifteenth week of the 2017-18 NBA season.

Could the Utah Jazz get any more confusing? Last week, I was feeling pretty good about my predictions. I had Utah going 2-2, losing to the Indiana Pacers and LA Clippers, but finally earning consecutive wins by defeating the Sacramento Kings and New York Knicks in between. Halfway through the week after falling to Indiana and crushing Sacramento, I was quite pleased with my foresight, but in the last two contests, I ended up being completely wrong.

Utah instead lost to the New York Knicks in an ugly game that ended in heartbreaking fashion after missing three good looks at the basket from three to tie it up. Then, on the second night of a back-to-back with the red hot LA Clippers in town, the Jazz came out energized and even managed to put up 76, yes 76 points in the first half on them!

Things got a little dicey in the second half as the Jazz ran out of gas and their third quarter woes continued once again, but Utah still managed to earn a 12-point victory over a team that’s been playing much better than the Knicks had been. A 2-2 week brought their overall record to 19-27 and my year-long projections record to 22-24.

So if you’re having a difficult time knowing what to expect from the Jazz night in and night out, don’t worry, you’re not alone. This team is getting harder and harder to predict with each passing game. My sincere hope is that after the trade deadline, Utah’s rotations will get more logical and we’ll see a team come together and make a phenomenal push to close out the year.

But there’s still a few weeks of action left before then, so rather than get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at what the Jazz can expect in the week ahead. They’ll hit the road for Week 15 as they embark on a three-game Eastern Conference road trip against a bad team, a middling team and a great team.

They start out visiting the dismal Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Atlanta is just 13-32 on the year and in the conversation for the worst team in the NBA this season, as their record matches that of the Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings. Then Utah will go on to visit the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday. The Pistons started out the year looking like they might be a force, but have since dropped to 22-22, just outside the playoff mix.

Last of all on the trip, the Jazz will pay a visit to the Toronto Raptors, who are having a phenomenal season. Not only are they second in the Eastern Conference, just 2.5 games back of the East-leading Boston Celtics, but they’ve been the best home team in the league with a record of 17-3. They’ve cooled off a little of late as they’ve lost three of their last five, but each of those games came against stiff competition and the wins included a gritty victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

As Utah’s week gets progressively harder with each game, hopefully we’ll see them step up and improve in each contest. Their big win over the Clippers was a reassuring sign that perhaps they’re getting closer to righting the ship, but they’ve had a tendency to undergo a major let-down after wins and have been awful on the road all season long.

With all that in mind, let’s really dive in to what awaits the Jazz in the 15th week of NBA action.