The Utah Jazz find themselves in a promising spot in the Western Conference standings as they head into an important three-game slate in Week 25.
Last week didn’t exactly go quite as I had imagined for the Utah Jazz, but at the end of the day, they earned the most important victory on Sunday, and that’s what matters the most. The Jazz failed to take advantage of a massive opportunity to move up in the standings when they faced off against a decimated Boston Celtics team on Wednesday and ultimately lost in heartbreaking fashion after giving up a 9-0 run to close out the game.
They then had a too close for comfort win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday followed up by a convincing victory over the division rival Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday which elevated the Jazz to sixth in the Western Conference. I had actually predicted the Jazz to go undefeated last week, so my projections record was identical to Utah’s record for the week of 2-1. For those keeping track at home, that put me at 43-34 on the year while the Jazz moved up to 44-33.
The fact that Utah is in sixth place in the West at this juncture of the season isn’t too shabby whatsoever, especially considering their spotty play prior to Sunday’s bout and that they were nine games under .500 back in January. However, with five games remaining in the season, there’s still no questioning that Utah has work to do, and that work will begin with yet another critical week ahead.
Utah Jazz 2017-18 Week 24 Outlook, Predictions https://t.co/dglg14lsgh pic.twitter.com/bgE6jAnAq8
— The J-Notes (@TheJNotes) March 27, 2018
The Jazz will play strictly teams from Los Angeles in a trio of contests in Week 25, as they’ll host the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday and the LA Clippers on Thursday before finishing off the week with a rematch against the Lakers at Staples Center on Sunday. The Lakers have enjoyed some success since the turn of the calendar year and have played spoiler on a number of occasions, so Utah will need to be wary for those contests.
Meanwhile, the Clippers are still in the playoff hunt, but sitting at two games out of eighth place with five games left, all of which are against challenging opponents, their postseason outlook is certainly grim. Nevertheless, expect them to still fight hard as they aim to preserve any chance they have left of breaking into the top eight.
With that backdrop set, let’s take a closer look at each of the three contests the Utah Jazz have ahead in Week 25 of NBA action.