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.

1/22 Utah at Atlanta

5:30 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass

Opponent record: 13-32

Season series: Tied 0-0

In a vacuum, the Utah Jazz should defeat this season’s Atlanta Hawks every time they play them. The Hawks are without a doubt in the midst of a rebuild and their 13-32 record is perfectly indicative of the kind of lackluster overall talent and depth they boast this season. However, the biggest concerns I have about this contest are that it’s on the road, where Utah is a horrible 5-18 this season, and that the Jazz haven’t logged consecutive wins since early December.

For nearly two months, the Jazz have followed up victories with a lackluster effort. Last week’s loss to a very beatable Knicks team after handily defeating the Kings is a perfect example. Hopefully it’s a trend that Utah can overcome, because regardless of road woes or inconsistency, there’s no excuse for a talented Jazz team to lose to the Hawks.

The Hawks are led by point guard Dennis Schroder who many thought would be their future at the position. However, despite leading the team with 20 points per game, he’s actually had a very disappointing season. He’s shooting just 44.1 percent from the field and an awful 30.2 percent from deep, while also turning the ball over 2.6 times per game.

Atlanta has some other promising guys such as Kent Bazemore, Taurean Prince and rookie John Collins, but overall, they aren’t a squad that’s striking fear into any team’s hearts. If Joe Ingles can find his shot as he did against LA last night, Rudy Gobert can continue to be a force and Donovan Mitchell can have one of his special nights while outmatching Schroder, this should turn into a nice road win for the Jazz, much like the one they pulled off in Sacramento last week.

My Prediction: Jazz Win

Final Score: Utah 118, Atlanta 103

1/24 Utah at Detroit

5:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass

Opponent record: 22-22

Season series: Tied 0-0

As I mentioned in the intro, it’s been a weird season for the Detroit Pistons. After a nice start to the season, they’ve apparently fallen off a cliff. They’ve lost seven of their last ten and are currently riding a four-game losing streak. They’ll have a good chance to turn that around this afternoon when they host the Brooklyn Nets, but the way they’ve been playing, there’s no guarantee that they’ll come out on top in that one either.

Tobias Harris has been the biggest revelation for the Pistons this season as he’s averaging 18 points per game on 45.6 percent shooting from the field and 41.7 percent from deep while also adding 5.1 rebounds per contest. He’s had some big games this season where he has showcased his offensive arsenal and the Jazz will need to make it a major point of emphasis to keep him in check.

After Harris, though, Detroit’s next three leading scorers have been somewhat disappointing. Avery Bradley (15.7 ppg), despite shooting the three well, has struggled from the field at 41.5 percent. He’s also been apt to turn the ball over and has overall been a net negative for the Pistons. Reggie Jackson (14.6 ppg) has been out for nearly a month with an ankle injury and even when he was active, he struggled to connect from deep at 33.9 percent shooting.

Finally, while Andre Drummond hasn’t been bad by any means with 14.5 points and a career-high 15.1 rebounds per game to go along with his best free throw percentage of his career by a long shot (63 percent), I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Detroit would like to see more out of their heralded big man, especially of late.

And while both teams are obviously different from last season, the Utah Jazz matched up extremely well against Detroit in 2016-17. The Jazz handily won both contests – by 33 in Salt Lake City and 14 in Detroit. Even with how poorly Utah has played on the road this year, when considering their recent success over Detroit, the Pistons’ recent slump and their overall disappointing play, I’m feeling optimistic that the Jazz could very well come out in top on this one.

This might be going out on a major limb considering that the Pistons are still a good team and the Jazz haven’t even been that in many of their contests of late, but I’m still going to take the risk and pin the Jazz as narrow winners in this road match-up.

My Prediction: Jazz Win

Final Score: Utah 99, Detroit 96

1/26 Utah at Toronto

5:30 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass

Opponent record: 31-14

Season series: Raptors lead 1-0

The final contest of the three-game road trip is bound to be a tough one for the Jazz as they’ll take on one of the elite teams in the East in the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors have been exceptional this season as evidenced by their 31-14 record as well as their incredible 17-3 mark at home. They’ve of course been led by All-Star starter DeMar DeRozan who’s putting up 25 points per game on his best field goal percentage since his rookie season of 47.9 percent and a career-high from behind the arc of 34.5 percent.

But what makes the Raptors particularly special is not just the backcourt of DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, but also their depth throughout their first and second units. Time and time again, role players such as C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet and Jakob Poeltl have stepped up to aid the others. With a constant attack that has resulted in Toronto putting up the third most points of any team in the league, the Jazz are going to have their work cut out for them on defense in this one.

When these two teams met early in the season in Salt Lake City, the Jazz played a pretty tough game for the most part. But, as one might expect, a rough third quarter did the Jazz in as they eventually fell 109-100. The Jazz actually had the edge in several areas in that match-up including points in the paint and turnovers, but in the end, the Raptors simply shot the ball better and won the battle of the boards which led to Utah’s defeat.

As big of a win as this would be and while I think the Raptors are more beatable than their record might indicate, I still think they’ll be too much for the Jazz to handle, especially on their home court. Toronto has been firing on all cylinders this season and particularly with how bad Utah has played on the road, it would take an upset of epic proportions for the Jazz to come out on top.

My Prediction: Raptors Win

Final Score: Toronto 107, Utah 96

Next: Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz outlast Lou Williams and the LA Clippers

If the Utah Jazz are going to get back on track and will their way into the playoffs, it’s not likely that they’ll do it with a mind-blowing run that spans multiple weeks. Instead, they’ll need to chip away at their deficit in the standings little by little. Going 2-1 in this week’s road trip as I have predicted, would be a perfect starting place to do just that.

It’s not going to be easy, especially considering how much Utah has struggled on recent road trips, but with Rudy Gobert back in action and with a confidence-raising win over the Clippers under their belts, perhaps the Jazz will surprise us and indeed log a winning record in Week 15. Each week is becoming more and more vital as the Jazz still find themselves out of the playoff mix with time running out more quickly than it might seem.