Utah Jazz at Memphis Grizzlies: Jazz have big chance to capitalize

The Utah Jazz will look to earn their fifth straight win and continue to climb the Western Conference standings as they visit the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

The playoff race is definitely heating up in the Western Conference and the Utah Jazz are right in the thick of it. After pulling out a big-time win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday while the Denver Nuggets fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Jazz now find themselves in a virtual tie with the Nuggets and LA Clippers, although Denver holds the tiebreaker over Utah and LA has an edge by mere percentage points.

Not only that, but there was some further slippage in the West’s logjam of teams on Thursday night as the Minnesota Timberwolves fell to the Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs fell to the Golden State Warriors. Also, after suffering an ankle injury on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings, Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans is questionable for the team’s upcoming bout and could miss a couple games now as he’s listed as day-to-day.

With all that coming together, it’s absolutely critical that the Utah Jazz take care of business against a hapless Memphis Grizzlies squad on Friday night. The Grizz find themselves in the midst of a 15-game losing streak that has dropped them all the way to possessing the worst record in the entire NBA.

So one would assume that Utah would have a major edge. I’ve been tough on the Jazz since the All-Star break as they hadn’t impressed me in the majority of their contests, including the wins, but they were back out in full force in an awesome win against the Pacers on Wednesday. In that game, the Jazz shot a blistering 51.2 percent from the field while totally taking Indiana out of their game plan and forcing them into an outing of 38.6 percent from the field and an awful 13 percent from deep.

It was the first game since Utah’s 11-game winning streak where I truly felt they were clicking on both ends of the floor and executed to perfection. And it came against a surging playoff team in the East, no less. If the Jazz can match that performance in their game against the Grizzlies, they should come away with another big win – one that could help them take a nice leap in the standings and finally land officially within the top eight.

However, as bad as Memphis has been of late, they’re not a team that can ever be slept on. Even though they no longer have the talent to be as dangerous as they once were in the height of the grit and grind days, they still like to muck up games and turn them into a grueling slug-fest. A team caught unaware or that isn’t willing to get physical risks getting outmatched.

Such was nearly the case in the last battle between these two teams at the FedEx Forum as the Jazz staved off the Grizzlies by a mere four points. Although Utah led the entire way, Memphis managed to tie the game up on a trio of occasions, including in the second half, and kept it close the entire way.

A big reason why the Grizzlies were able to hang around was because the Jazz struggled in two areas that have significantly plagued them of late – three-point shooting and turnovers. Utah went just 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) while turning the ball over an unacceptable 19 times. They were able to get away with that kind of play against Memphis, but typically, it wouldn’t be a recipe for success in the least.

And if Utah repeats that kind of play on Friday, the game could very well end poorly for them.

Fortunately, I just don’t see that happening. Despite this game coming on the second stop of a three-game road trip and the fact that Memphis can be a challenging team on their home court, the Jazz have been playing well and know what’s at stake. I’d be extremely surprised if they didn’t come out focused and ready to simply dominate a lesser squad.

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While the Jazz do battle in Memphis on Friday, the LA Clippers will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers while the Denver Nuggets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers who have been on a roll of late. If all the chips fall Utah’s way, they could very well leapfrog both those teams to take sole possession of eighth place in the West.

But that will depend first and foremost on them shutting down the Memphis Grizzlies in a game that Utah absolutely should win, but still can’t overlook.