Utah Jazz vs. Boston Celtics: A win puts Jazz in fifth place

If the Utah Jazz can take care of business against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, just like they did earlier in the season, they’ll move to fifth place in the West.

Remember when the Utah Jazz were in tenth place in the Western Conference for what felt like half a decade largely because they couldn’t seem to get any help in the form of teams around them in the standings losing? Well, fortune seems to finally be on their side as the Minnesota Timberwolves lost in shocking fashion to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, then both the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans were defeated on Tuesday.

With that being the case, with a win on Wednesday night, the Jazz will have the same record as both San Antonio and New Orleans, but will surpass both of them in the standings due to the fact that they hold the tiebreaker over both teams. In other words, if Utah arises victorious in their upcoming bout, they’ll be back in fifth place in the crowded Western Conference.

That’s the good news. The bad news? That win isn’t going to come easy as the Utah Jazz will be hosting the second best team in the Eastern Conference – the Boston Celtics – on Wednesday night in the critical contest. This game hasn’t ended up being quite as highly anticipated as it would have been if former Jazzman Gordon Hayward were suiting up for the C’s, but you can bet that intensity will still be high as the Jazz look to prove a point against the team that whisked away their former All-Star teammate.

Such was precisely the case in the previous meeting between these two squads in Boston as the Jazz came away with an impressive 107-95 victory. It was a surprising win as both of Utah’s starting big men, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, went down with injuries early in the game, but fortunately, the Jazz were able to prevail thanks largely to the superb play of Ricky Rubio.

Utah was able to overcome a 33-point outpouring from Kyrie Irving to secure what was a rare December win at the time.

Both teams will look quite a bit different this time around as the Jazz and Celtics prepare to face off for the final time this season. Of course, Rudy Gobert is as healthy as ever and should be ready to make an impact throughout the game for the Jazz. This Utah team is now firing on all cylinders, playing much better and more confident ball than they were the last time they took on Boston and, of course, the former Celtic himself, Jae Crowder is now a member of the Jazz.

Considering that Crowder was shed by his Celtics team to bring in Kyrie Irving and help make room for the Hayward-Irving duo, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see no small chip on his shoulder as he looks to exact some revenge on his old team. Similarly, Jonas Jerebko, another former Celtic, played exceptionally well in the previous meeting and I could see him doing so again.

On Boston’s side of things, the main reason why they look different is because of injuries. The injury bug has been unkind to the Celtics from Day 1 beginning with Gordon Hayward’s season-ending setback, but that’s been far from the last. Currently, Boston is also without Kyrie Irving who is recovering from knee surgery, Marcus Smart who is recovering from thumb surgery and Daniel Theis who will miss the remainder of the season with a torn meniscus.

Despite the injuries, the Celtics have still been playing well of late as they’ve won four straight including against the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Even in the absence of All-Star Kyrie Irving, several of their young guns have stepped up in a major way to help will them to impressive victories. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier have all had good games on at least one occasion recently and veteran Al Horford continues to shine as well.

But perhaps the brightest point of this Celtics team isn’t even one of the players in uniform, but rather head coach Brad Stevens who has kept his team in second place in the East despite all of the injury woes they’ve faced. He’s certainly capable of getting the most out of his players and, therefore, the Jazz will have to watch out for whoever gets the nod in Wednesday’s contest.

Utah was able to defeat the Celtics in the last meeting due largely to their phenomenal three-point shooting that saw them go 13-of-25 (52 percent) from deep while Boston shot just 9-of-31 (29 percent), and also because of their dominance on the boards. Utah out-rebounded Boston by an absurd count of 55-31.

On the season, the Celtics have been a better three-point shooting team (third in the league at 37.8 percent) than the Jazz and similar in rebounding, so it will be vital that Utah find a way to come away with the edge in both of those categories once again. Not only that, but Rudy Gobert will need to dominate the matchup against All-Star Al Horford and the Jazz will have to keep the aforementioned young guns in check.

Although Kyrie Irving is Boston’s leading scorer, the Celtics’ second and third leading scorers, Brown and Tatum, respectively, have done an exceptional job at picking up the slack in his absence. Marcus Morris has likewise been effective and was the key cog in his team’s big win over Portland last week as he dropped 30 points on the Trail Blazers.

In short, the Celtics have so many guys that can hurt Utah, and the Jazz will absolutely have to be on their A-game to come out on top. With or without Kyrie, the Celtics boast a talented, well-rounded and deep roster that could very well catch the Jazz off guard on Wednesday.

However, if the Jazz can frustrate Boston’s young bucks into inefficient shooting nights, contain Horford and Morris in the frontcourt and match their effort both on the boards and from behind the arc from the previous meeting between these two teams, then they should very well be able to come out on top.

The Jazz are just 2-2 in their last four games and particularly in the loss against Atlanta, didn’t quite look like the same team that had played so well during the recent nine-game winning streak. With that being the case, Wednesday’s contest against a dangerous Celtics squad will be a great measuring stick to see if the Jazz have officially righted the ship or if their hot streak is starting to fade.

The Brad Stevens-led Celtics are sure to put up an incredible fight and definitely have a good chance to beat the Jazz. However, when all is said and done, I believe Utah will come out on top. They looked good in the previous contest against Boston, have a lot to play for both in terms of playoff positioning as well as getting revenge on Hayward’s new team and won’t have to deal with two key Celtics players in Irving and Smart.

With all that adding up, I project that the Jazz are going to win a hard-fought battle to sweep the season series against the Boston Celtics and move into fifth place in the West.

My Prediction: Jazz 103, Celtics 101

Next: Utah Jazz 2017-18 Week 24 Outlook, Predictions

This bout will be televised nationally on ESPN and is bound to be an absolute thriller as the Utah Jazz aim to further solidify their spot in the crowded Western Conference standings. The game tips off at 7:30 PM MT.