Swept by OKC
Speaking of Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder, although the games were largely closely contested and some came on tough schedule situations for the Jazz, it was a discouraging sight to see Utah lose all four regular season bouts against their division rival. OKC was dominant against the Jazz this season which could be detrimental as playoff seeding continues to be decided.
Sure, the four regular season losses may not amount to much as the Jazz may not even see the Thunder in the postseason, the Jazz look likely to finish above them in the standings anyway and they were such close games that they’re not as embarrassing as one might think. Still, after thwomping the Thunder in the playoffs a season ago, it would have been nice to see the Jazz put on a better showing against them.
The Thunder have drawn a lot of ire from the Utah faithful and losing each contest to them this year was enough to put a knot in fans’ stomachs. It would have been nice if at least one or two of those defeats had been little more than an April Fools prank.
Instead, the reality is that Utah fell all four times in a continued struggle to rise to the challenge against fellow Western Conference playoff teams. Hopefully, and perhaps probably, this will end up inconsequential. But it’s still something I’m certain the Jazz wish they could reverse.