A grand opportunity to get above .500 begins as Utah Jazz host Magic

Beginning with Wednesday’s contest against a very beatable Orlando Magic team, the Utah Jazz are facing a great opportunity to make a run up the standings.

The Utah Jazz took weeks to finally climb up to a .500 record after faltering several times. But they finally did so when they came from behind to defeat the Detroit Pistons on the road to move to 20-20 on the year. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay there long as a hard-fought bout against the Milwaukee Bucks ended up not going in Utah’s favor, immediately dropping them down to 20-21.

Nevertheless, Jazz fans should be encouraged by the stretch the team has ahead in which they could very well make a nice little surge to not only hit .500, but get back above it. Perhaps this time for good.

That favorable stretch begins on Wednesday night as the Utah Jazz host the Orlando Magic within the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena. From there, they’ll host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, who presumably will be without the injured LeBron James. Lastly, on Saturday Utah will host the Chicago Bulls, who will be coming in off a late road back-to-back, and then on Monday they’ll play the Detroit Pistons, who the Jazz match up quite well against.

In other words, all four of those games are very much winnable for the Jazz, especially on their home court. However, they’ll need to be sure to set a great tone right off the bat by first taking care of the visiting Magic on Wednesday night.

The Jazz didn’t do that in their contest in Mexico City where they faced Orlando the first time. In that bout, Utah simply couldn’t find the bottom of the net as they struggled to acclimate to their new surroundings south of the border. The Jazz went a mind-numbingly bad 31.5 percent from the field and 24.1 percent from deep.

Say what you will about a host of Jazz deficiencies this season, but their flat-out inability to buy a bucket at times, sometimes during extremely long stretches, has been their principal issue. The offense at times flows and looks exhilarating, but too often it goes through slumps where nothing seems to work.

Having Ricky Rubio, Dante Exum and to a lesser extent Thabo Sefolosha out won’t help any on that front. Exum continues to recover from an ankle injury he suffered against the Pistons, while Rubio is set to miss about two weeks with a hamstring injury that forced him to leave the contest against the Bucks. While both guards have had their poor moments this season, both have looked quite capable of late, so losing them now will be a tough blow.

That’s especially true considering that Donovan Mitchell will have to assume much more of the point guard duties, a task that he hasn’t exactly thrived in whenever Ricky has been out. Third-string point guard Raul Neto will need to step up big as will the likes of Joe Ingles and Royce O’Neale.

Even with the injury absences and other obstacles facing the Jazz, I still like their chances against the Magic on Wednesday. Despite Utah’s horrific shooting night in the last contest, the Magic barely squeaked by. Had Utah shot even an average percentage, it would have likely been a blowout game in their favor, especially considering that the stingy Jazz defense forced a whopping 22 Magic turnovers.

The Jazz should match up quite well against Orlando, as their two principal scorers are their big men Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon. While both are forces to be reckoned with, I like the odds of Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors stopping them. The Stifle Tower has given Vuc problems in games past, and Aaron Gordon’s efficiency has left a lot to be desired this year, meaning that Favors has a great shot at stopping him.

Beyond those two, the Jazz just have to be sound and focused to topple Orlando. Largely renowned deep-ball threat Evan Fournier is putting up a career-low in 3-point percentage this year, so he is very much containable as is the rest of Orlando’s wing rotation. As a team, the Magic are just 17th in the league in 3-point percentage. Sure, that’s above the Jazz’s mark, but it’s still not all that daunting.

Not only that, but the sub-.500 Magic rank third to last in the league in offensive rating and are a mediocre 14th in defensive rating. The D has certainly improved under new head coach Steve Clifford, but this still isn’t a team striking fear into any opponent. As such, Utah should be able to capitalize.

As the Utah Jazz have unfortunately discovered on far too many occasions this season, no team in the NBA can be overlooked. The same certainly applies for the Magic here. Yes, the Jazz have overall more talent and depth, as well as the advantage of playing on their home court, but their backcourt injuries could provide a perfect window of opportunity allowing the Magic to sneak by and earn a surprise victory.

That’s a completely feasible outcome, but I’m still pinning the Jazz to put the pieces together in this one and come away with a quite manageable victory against one of the worst offenses in the league.

My Prediction: Jazz 110, Magic 93