Utah Jazz finally getting help, but keep failing to capitalize

Several of the teams around the Utah Jazz in the standings have faced some struggles of late, but the Jazz simply haven’t been able to capitalize as they continue to drop winnable games.

When the Utah Jazz went on a streak that began with 11 wins in a row then became 21 wins in 23 games, many fans were shocked at how slow their progress up the standings was going despite all the victories they kept producing. For the longest time, they didn’t budge from the 10th spot and even once they finally got into the playoff mix, they found themselves with little to no breathing room.

That was a result of several factors. First, before their big run of wins the Jazz were way out of the mix sitting at nine games under .500, so just getting back into the picture was an uphill battle. Second, let’s just be blunt, the Western Conference is a gauntlet. And third, the teams around Utah in the standings were all simply playing too well and weren’t allowing them to gain as much ground as one might suppose.

Thankfully, that’s changed pretty dramatically of late. The Minnesota Timberwolves have started to struggle, the San Antonio Spurs have been inconsistent, the New Orleans Pelicans lost battles to the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, the Denver Nuggets have been slumping, even the Oklahoma City Thunder lost a game in which they had no business falling to the depleted Boston Celtics who were down five with just 16.8 seconds remaining.

With all that occurring, if Utah had just taken care of business against teams that they should have defeated, they’d be comfortably in the middle of the playoff pack and quite possibly in a top-four spot. Unfortunately, rather than rise above the chaos happening around the Jazz in the standings, they’ve fallen victim to it as well, and have failed to take any sort of advantage of the struggles of their opponents.

On Tuesday of last week, the Utah Jazz had a chance to solidify their hold of the fifth seed and capitalize on that aforementioned Oklahoma City Thunder loss to the Celtics to move within one game of the fourth seed. Instead, they dropped an embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Later in the week, Utah could have surpassed San Antonio in the standings and swept the regular season series by toppling the Spurs. Instead, they lost in heartbreaking fashion in overtime. This one isn’t quite as painful because, well, it’s the Spurs we’re talking about, and falling to them on their home court isn’t exactly unexpected. But it doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been inconsistent of late and it was very much a winnable bout for Utah.

Last of all, and perhaps worst of all, the Jazz had yet another opportunity to climb from seventh place to fifth place in the West by defeating the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. Normally, this would have been a tough task considering how daunting the second-seeded Celtics have been this year. However, since they were without Kyrie Irving, Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis and Al Horford who are all dealing with injuries, it was a game that Utah absolutely was expected to win.

Don’t get me wrong, head coach Brad Stevens is a mastermind and Boston’s young guns and other reserves are solid, but with that many leading contributors out of commission, Utah had no business losing that game.

But that’s exactly what they did.

And what makes it worse is the fashion in which they lost, allowing the Celtics to come back from six down with about two minutes left. Boston closed the game on a 9-0 run as the Jazz simply made mistake after mistake down the stretch, including not going two-for-one late in the game and allowing Boston to have the last meaningful possession while the game was tied at 94 apiece.

Instead of climbing up to fifth place, the Utah Jazz have now fallen back down to eighth place. Instead of solidifying their spot in the playoff mix, they’ve once again put their postseason qualification in jeopardy. The LA Clippers are currently just a game back of the Jazz who have now blown two huge opportunities (vs. Atlanta and Boston) to help seal their spot in the playoffs.

It wasn’t long ago that the teams in the standings around the Jazz weren’t helping them. Now the Jazz simply aren’t helping themselves.

Of course, the nature of a league of professionals such as the NBA is going to result in good teams losing to teams they shouldn’t. It’s not that far outside of the norm for off nights like these to occur. But considering the circumstances and how desperately Utah needs to turn winnable games into victories, there’s no excuse for the lackluster performances they’ve put up of late.

The good news is that while eighth place isn’t an ideal spot, not only because it’s teetering on the edge of falling out of the playoffs, but also because finishing there means a first-round date with the Houston Rockets, the fact of the matter is that the Jazz are still in the playoff mix with seven games left to improve their position.

But the bad news is that the Jazz have not looked all that great of late in wins or losses dating back to their win over the Phoenix Suns on March 15th. In the six games since then, Utah is just 3-3 and the team has not been able to find their shot whatsoever, particularly from deep where they’re shooting a putrid 29.3 percent.

I’m not about to say the Jazz are in dire straights just yet, but they’re getting close to that point. They face a Memphis Grizzlies team on Friday that has given them troubles this season and is coming off consecutive impressive wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves and Portland Trail Blazers. After that, the Jazz will travel to Minnesota to take on the T-Wolves themselves in a game that many already presumed Utah would lose even when they were playing well.

If they can’t right the ship in these next two games, it’s going to spell big trouble. The game against the Timberwolves was set to have major playoff implications anyway. Now, a loss there could potentially push Utah out of the playoff picture entirely.

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The Utah Jazz have still won 23 of their last 28 games, which is a mind-blowing figure. However, that doesn’t excuse the recent losses that absolutely should have been wins, especially for a team supposedly hungry and focused on getting into the playoffs at all costs.

Utah is finally getting help from teams around them in the standings, but if they can’t get out of their own way, it could very well be the undoing of their endangered playoff hopes.