Utah Jazz: Predicting end date of remarkable home win streak

Will any visitors beat the Utah Jazz across the rest of the regular season?

True, the Utah Jazz’s franchise-record 22-game home win streak, which began after losses in their first two Vivint Arena games this season, might in part be a byproduct of this team enjoying the NBA’s highest average fan attendance.

And it surely doesn’t hurt that Utah’s decision-makers recently upped the occupancy limit to roughly 5,600 per game.

However, home or away, there’s no denying that these league-leading Jazzmen (38-11) are absolutely rolling. At the moment, they’ve come out on top in nine straight outings, regardless of the venue, and are evidently unfazed by the relatively high number of back-to-back games this season (the Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers are tied with an 8-1 record on zero days’ rest).

Plus, factoring in previous unblemished stretches of 11 and nine games, Utah boasts all of the three longest win streaks in the league this season.

Now, judging from Saturday’s 137-91 clinic that had the visiting Orlando Magic (17-32) in a state of 3-point shellshock, it would be a bold move to bet against the Jazz in Salt Lake City anytime soon.

Besides, at home, Utah is averaging 118.5 points to opponents’ 102.8 per game, and the group is shooting 39.9 percent from three with visitors hitting only 31.3 percent.

Prediction: Utah Jazz soon fall at home

With 23 games to go in the Utah Jazz’s regular season, let’s see if it would be wise to forecast an end to their home win streak at all. We’ll start by taking a gander at the 12 remaining home games (opponents’ current records in parentheses):

• Thursday vs. the Portland Trail Blazers (30-19)
• Saturday vs. the Sacramento Kings (22-28)
• April 12 vs. the Washington Wizards (17-31)
• April 13 vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder (20-29)
• April 16 vs. the Indiana Pacers (22-26)
• April 24 vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves (12-38)
• May 1 vs. the Toronto Raptors (19-30)
• May 3 vs. the San Antonio Spurs (24-23)
• May 5 vs. the San Antonio Spurs (24-23)
• May 7 vs. the Denver Nuggets (30-18)
• May 8 vs. the Houston Rockets (13-35)
• May 12 vs. the Portland Trail Blazers (30-19)

OK, so seven of the 12 games are against teams that currently have losing records. Furthermore, of the five other matchups, two are against the Spurs, who are hovering around the .500 mark.

Therefore, outside of the meetings with the Nuggets and Trail Blazers, it seems any Jazz losses from here on out at home would be a significant upset.

Again, though, at this point, pretty much any Jazz loss, period, would be an upset.

With all of that in mind, perhaps the prediction here should be that the Utah Jazz will extend their home win streak to 34 games by the end of the regular season (the Golden State Warriors own the all-time regular-season record with 54 consecutive wins at home, spanning portions of their 2014-15 and 2015-16 campaigns).

But that’s not the prediction.

Instead, looking at the next visitors, the Blazers are essentially fully healthy and have won five of their last six, including four on the road and Saturday’s 48-point destruction of the Oklahoma City Thunder in Portland.

Granted, the Blazers have a net rating of only +0.4, largely due to consistent struggles on defense, and they lost to the Jazz by 20 at home in the two teams’ only meeting to date this season.

Yet that clash was the season opener. Plenty has changed since, especially in Portland.

Moreover, the Blazers have enough weapons to potentially match the Jazz’s scoring on any given night.

Finally, when they face off at 8 p.m. MT Thursday, Utah will be coming off a Wednesday night game at the Phoenix Suns (34-14), not to mention its battle at the Dallas Mavericks (27-21) on Monday night. Meanwhile, the Blazers will arrive with one day’s rest after playing at the Los Angeles Clippers (32-18) on Tuesday, their only game between now and Thursday.

In other words, with all the necessary ingredients for a daunting challenge at home against the Portland Trail Blazers this week, the prediction here is that the Utah Jazz’s home win streak ends right where it presently stands: 22 games.