The Utah Jazz have shed their losing ways, for the time being. A two-game winning streak (Memphis and Dallas) has brought hope back to Salt Lake City and returned the team to the 10th spot in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
While a 10-15 mark might not be world-beating, it's a significant improvement over a season ago, when the Jazz reached 10 wins on January 12th, and that put them at 10-28, with no hope in sight.
While Lauri Markkanen is still the leader of this Jazz team, he now has a second star to help carry the scoring load. The rapid rise of Keyonte George (23.5 points per game) has been a huge factor in the team's improvement from last season.
Solid contributions up and down the roster have made this a team effort, even in the face of mounting adversity, with nine players averaging between six and 10 points a night.
We discussed previously how the upcoming stretch of games would make or break the Utah Jazz's season, and so far, they're responding to the challenge, even as they still have some issues to sort out.
What do the Jazz need to fix?
The Utah Jazz are still struggling mightily on one end of the court - and if they have designs on actually making the play-in at the end of the season, their best chance will be to shore up a leaky defense.
Only two Jazz players have offensive ratings better than their defensive ones at this juncture - Lauri Markkanen (125 to 122) and Kevin Love (125 to 120). Everyone else is underwater. And Love only plays 15 minutes a night, so the guys getting the minutes are the ones that need to make a jump defensively.
The absence of Walker Kessler obviously hurts here, but with him gone, it must be a team effort to improve, even if by a few possessions a night.
The difficult part of fixing the defense is that Keyonte George, the blossoming star guard for the Jazz, is part of the problem. Though he has improved his perimeter defense and is better at getting through or over screens, he currently ranks 24th among NBA point guards in steals per game (0.8), while turning the ball over 3.5 times a night.
While Key isn't responsible for all of the Jazz's defensive follies, putting on-ball pressure at the point of attack sets the tone for everyone else. With his wingspan and physical talents, Keyonte should average 1.5 steals a night, which would help stop some of those opponent scoring opportunities.
Also, when the Jazz rebound well, they win. They're 6-4 when they get 48 rebounds or more, 4-11 when they have 47 or fewer. Even with Jusuf Nurkic's 9.6 boards a night (10th in the NBA currently), they need others to step up and hit the glass, to have more chances at winning their games.
And lastly, when the Utah Jazz keep the games from getting out of control on the scoreboard, they win more often. In games that they allow 130 points or more, they're 3-8 on the season, compared to a 7-7 mark when holding opponents under that number.
So the Jazz have some things to work on. To be in the mix for a play-in berth, they can't keep getting in shootouts every night. Barring a trade or free agent signing, they're going with who they have on the roster now, and will need to get a better effort on defense if they want to win more games.