Utah Jazz look to continue hot streak against visiting Cavs

The Utah Jazz can continue their surge up the tightly contested Western Conference Standings with a win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday evening.

The Utah Jazz are finally playing winning basketball again. In fact, they currently hold the league’s second longest active win streak at five straight victories, trailing only Golden State’s six. The Jazz are fresh off a commanding road win over the LA Clippers and now return home for a four-game home stand.

We all knew that the Jazz’s schedule was going to ease up significantly in the latter half of the year, and not only is the four-game home stand a good example of that, but their first opponent particularly is. Utah will start off this slate by hosting the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers, who currently hold the worst record in the NBA.

And as bad as Utah’s start to the season was, Jazz fans might be surprised to find that they are actually sitting in an incredibly favorable spot. Heading into Friday’s slate of games, the Western Conference is an absolute dogfight. Sure, it’s disappointing to find the Jazz in ninth place due to a tiebreaker with the Los Angeles Lakers and mere percentage points in the record behind the LA Clippers, but it’s quite easy to see a path to ascend rapidly.

Due to third-seeded Oklahoma City’s recent slump, there is currently just two games separating the ninth seed and third seed in the West. Talk about a crazy logjam. That means a two-game winning streak by the Jazz and two-game losing streak by the Thunder could cause an absolute flip in the standings.

That’s obviously ignoring a lot of factors and other teams, but I think it gives you a good idea. The West standings could absolutely undergo a major shuffle in the near future. And personally, I think that shuffle will most definitely feature a surge for the Jazz.

A win against Cleveland on Friday night would vault the Jazz back above the Lakers for eighth place, and likely into seventh assuming the Clippers lose to the Warriors. And from there, if the Jazz can continue to build on their current five-game win streak, they could very well climb higher than that in the not-so-distant future.

Not only are they just two games behind the third-seeded Thunder, they’re also just a game back of the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets and two games behind the fourth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. If any of those teams begin to falter while the Jazz stay hot, we could see a massive swing in the coming weeks.

And with Cleveland in town on Friday night, I’m feeling quite confident that we will indeed see the Jazz stay hot. Utah got off to a slow start against the Cavs last time around, but used a huge second half to topple them in commanding fashion. Despite trailing by one at the break, the Jazz went on to go up by as many as 34 points and ultimately won 117-91.

When all was said and done, the Jazz shot a solid 51.2 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep. The Cavs were prolific from the perimeter themselves, going 11-of-21 (52.4 percent). And that’s actually an area where the Jazz will need to be aware. Although the Cavs have a dismal offense overall with the 24th ranked offensive rating in the league, they’re actually a decent perimeter shooting team.

On the season, they’re converting on 35.7 percent of their threes, good for 12th in the league, which is significantly higher than the 21st ranked Jazz. The Cavs aren’t normally that much of an offensive threat at all, but if the young squad gets some confidence and momentum going by dropping the long-ball, that could spell trouble for the Jazz.

The other thing Cleveland has going for them is that although they are a dismal 4-19 on the road, two of their key contributors, Alec Burks and Rodney Hood, are quite familiar with playing inside Vivint Smart Home Arena. Burks and Hood are both putting up double figures with the Cavs and have shot quite well from the perimeter themselves. Utah will need to eliminate any hope of a revenge game by keeping that pair in check.

Having said all that, I’m still feeling excellent about the Jazz’s chances. Considering that Utah has taken care of business so well in recent contests against better teams, they should be able to do so against a struggling Cavaliers team, especially considering that they boast the worst defense in the NBA by a considerable amount. As such, I’m expecting a big win in their favor this upcoming evening.

My Prediction – Jazz 120, Cavs 99

Doing so will put the Jazz back in the playoff mix and on a great trajectory to continue to ascend up the tightly-contested Western Conference standings. Despite a tumultuous start, the Jazz are in a better spot than many might have predicted a few weeks back, and certainly in a better spot than they were at this time a year ago. This season could still very well be bright for the up-and-coming squad.