Utah Jazz: Will the win over Golden State spark a change in the winds?

Will the Utah Jazz’s impressive win over the Golden State Warriors mark a turning point in what’s otherwise been a disappointing start to the season?

Full disclosure here – one of my favorite movies of all time is Angels in the Outfield. In my mind it’s an absolute classic with an underrated superstar cast and one of the best sports premises of all time. Don’t even bother trying to change my mind.

In that movie, the dismally awful California Angels finally start to turn things around by way of divine intervention through a kid named Roger who can see angels and thus knows which players head coach George Knox should insert into the game. With the help of the heavenly messengers, the Angels – the baseball team that is – start to turn things around and ascend the standings rapidly.

But during the early part of their winning streak, Angels announcer Ranch Wilder, an antagonist of sorts, has a quote that features one of my favorite analogies due to the picture it paints. Immediately after a win, he states, “Ladies and gentlemen, can we now say the Angels are on a winning streak? Or were these last few games just a small blip on the screen of a terminally ill patient?”

I pose a similar question about the Utah Jazz. Although they certainly aren’t on a winning streak – they just barely lost two straight and four of five – they did earn a big-time win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. What I want to know about that win, though, is the same question Wilder posed about the Angels that suddenly looked like a whole new team. Will the win over the Warriors propel the Jazz to new heights? Or was it just a blip on the screen of what could certainly be classified as a terminally ill patient?

Considering that the Jazz remain in just 12th place 32 games into the season, their play certainly has had them looking dead in the water. So will this big win spark a turnaround or will they simply revert to the norm?

If it does indeed bring the best out of the Jazz, it won’t take us long to figure that out. They have a gauntlet of a schedule ahead in the next four games as they’ll travel to Portland to face the Blazers on Friday, then return home to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday. Then they’ll face the Blazers yet again in the highly-anticipated Christmas Day game in Salt Lake before hosting the Philadelphia 76ers two days later.

All of those teams have winning records, and I’d go as far as to say both the Thunder and Sixers look elite in their respective conferences, with OKC boasting a .667 win percentage (20-10) and Philly at .636 (21-12).

If the win over the Warriors was little more than a one-time spike in which the Jazz defense and energy were up to snuff to beat the team’s best, but they simply revert to this year’s norm immediately after, they’ll likely lose all four contests. However, if the victory against Golden State marks a turning point, we should see Utah notch at least two (if not more) critical wins during this upcoming slate.

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The Jazz have won four in a row at home, where they finally appear to be returning to their old selves. A home swing after the game in Portland could very well help the Jazz to have a great little run, and ideally their confidence will be elevated to a whole new level thanks to their victory over the defending champs.

In Angels in the Outfield, while the divine intervention is what gets them back on their feet from a discouraging start, eventually what sustains their amazing play is the new confidence, faith and belief in one another that results. The Angels start winning without the help of any force outside of their own talent, including an incredible win for the pennant.

Hopefully the Jazz can follow a similar trajectory. They don’t have a win streak in place just yet, but a win over the Warriors should feel about as good as one. Their confidence and belief in one another should be at an all-time high, and ideally we’ll see incredibly favorable results in the coming games despite their level of difficulty.

Potentially high confidence and a season-changing win under their belt notwithstanding, the Jazz will still have their work cut out for them these next three games if they hope to have any chance of getting back above .500.

But as JP from Angels in the Outfield repeatedly stated – Hey, it could happen!