The Utah Jazz have had quite an eight-game stretch. They're 5-3 in their last eight and have gotten themselves to a 13-19 record. They're seemingly right back on track and while they still have a losing record, the team as a whole seems to be in a much better place going forward. The starting five is stable, the bench is being figured out and the team is mostly healthy now.
So, as the famed Simpsons character once said; everything should be coming up Milhouse for the Jazz, right? Well, there's a reason that saying is said by Milhouse Van Houten, the Simpons' resident sad sack character. It's because when things somehow go his way, things often find a new way to go bad. The Jazz are finally healthy and just like Milhouse, once things start going good, something awful comes their way.
For the Jazz, that means a stretch of games against the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Denver Nuggets in what would be back-to-back-to-back games, if it wasn't for a brief interlude by the Detroit Pistons
The Pistons are going to break up a stretch of what would be six of the best teams in the NBA in one long test. The Jazz had had a nice run of it, but it's very likely that the Jazz go 1-6 over the next seven and if they do, it may be hard to imagine the Jazz coming back from a 14-25 record.
If the Jazz can split the record, or even go 4-3 over the next seven, then the playoffs will still be within earshot of the Jazz. But it's going to take some luck for the Jazz to survive teams like the Celtics, 76ers, Bucks, and Nuggets, who are having great seasons and are leaders in their respective conferences.
The Heat and Mavericks are the most beatable of the six, but they aren't going to be easy either. The rest of the season may come down to these next seven games.