Utah Jazz must take care of business vs Cavaliers to begin 4-game road trip
The Utah Jazz begin a four-game road trip against the Cavaliers in Cleveland tonight. This is a game that the Jazz are favored in and simply need to win.
After dropping four consecutive games following the All-Star break, the Utah Jazz got a much-needed victory against the Washington Wizards on Friday.
The Jazz couldn’t take advantage of their five-game home stand, which hurt them in the standings. They will now head out for a four-game road trip, but the good news is that three of the four games will be against non-playoff teams.
That includes tonight’s opponent — the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are dead last in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 17-43.
Utah can’t just look at Cleveland’s record and assume this is an automatic win. The Cavaliers have been competitive under new Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff and have nothing to lose.
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While the Jazz are coming off a solid win, they haven’t exactly been playing inspiring basketball as of late. Their struggles have been well documented, but now is the time for them to turn things around and gain some momentum going into the playoffs.
A four-game road trip may be just with this team needs. This will be a good time for the team to spend some time together on the road and try to regain some of the chemistry they had earlier this season.
Let’s hope that the Jazz get another star performance from Donovan Mitchell. He’s been playing some incredible basketball lately, scoring at least 30 points in his last four games. He’s now had 42 games of 30+ points during his career.
He’ll be going up against another electric guard in Collin Sexton, who is averaging 20.0 points in his second NBA season. He’s averaging 21.7 points since the All-Star break and is one of Cleveland’s go-to guys.
Another fun match-up will be Rudy Gobert vs Andre Drummond. Gobert is having his worst stretch of the season, but still makes a major impact, which is what All-Stars do. Drummond, meanwhile, is playing a lot looser since joining the Cavaliers via trade.
Cleveland has a bunch of talent on their roster and have upset many teams this season. If the Jazz hope to climb the standings, this is a game that they need to win. Come in, take care of business and move on to the next game.
As Rudy Gobert says, #OnToTheNextOne.
Next. The Utah Jazz are a team without an identity. dark
I’m expecting the Utah Jazz to come away with a second consecutive win tonight. I think they’ll come out of the gates hot and run away with it. They know just as much as anyone else that they need to win games like this one and prepare for the playoff run.