Utah Jazz receive the league’s friendliest season schedule
By Matt Giles
Per one formula, the 2021-22 Utah Jazz schedule is relatively trouble-free.
Should the Utah Jazz fail to repeat as regular-season champs this season, they shouldn’t have the schedule-makers to blame.
No, of all 30 team schedules that the NBA released on Friday for the league’s 75th anniversary season, the 2021-22 Jazz slate may be the most conducive to a top-tier finish in the standings. At least that’s how it appears in the eyes of the Positive Residual calculation, which factors rest advantages and disadvantages against all opponents, plus travel distances, altitude, etc.
However, when it comes to another critical component, opponent strength, the site’s Twitter account pointed out Utah’s inherent luxury of not having to play itself.
That makes sense.
Notable tidbits about the Utah Jazz schedule
The fact that Utah faces the star-laden Los Angeles squads only three times apiece also ought to help its quest to match or outdo last season’s 52-20 campaign (the schedule returns to 82 games this go-round).
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Furthermore, the Jazz’s 13 back-to-back games fall under the league average. And they have two six-game homestands to only one road stretch of that length.
Utah’s regular-season journey begins in the friendly confines of Vivint Arena against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. MT. and wraps up on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers on April 10.
Finally, it’s worth noting this will mark the first time in history that the franchise has games on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day — not to mention Halloween and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Of those five contests, only the one on New Year’s Eve will not be on national TV.
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Jazz bouts air on either NBA TV, TNT, ESPN, or ABC 26 times.