Jazz’ Incredible Pace

[Anonymous]

They’re running a blistering pace at the moment. If they could do this over an entire season, it would be a 74-8 record. This is truly incredible. 

[EagleMountainUte]

By Mitchell’s third year that is almost my expectation. They need to hang onto Favors. I don’t believe Exum has a place anymore on the team. Rubio, Mitchell, Favors, Ingles and Gobert is a great lineup. I like ONeal he needs to play a little smarter. That time he got blocked by Davis if he had two handed it he draws a foul. Jerebko will improve his shot even more. Crowder off the bench or starting is great. I just wonder if they can draw in a big name free agent with Mitchell on the rise. 

[ironman1315]

We’re getting Lebron this year. 😉

[Anonymous]

Yeah. 😏 We need to keep Favors.

[EagleMountainUte]

Haha one can dream. I do believe in the modern nba there is this attitude with a lot players they don’t want to be the guy. Or they have understood all players have had a very good player with them. 

[rbmw263]

Exum and Mitchell are tailor made combo guards. And if you are paying attention to defense, when you see the Mitchell Exum tandem defending the point of attack, you’ll see Exum has a place on this team.

[EagleMountainUte]

Can’t depend on Exum to stay healthy is my biggest thing. I just don’t see it happening for the kid. If he does it somewhere else than good for him. Rubio is still a very good player he is very smart and he kept a “playoff” like game rolling offensively for the Jazz. 

[rbmw263]

A guy tearing his acl once (and young when you can make a better recovery) and having a freak injury doesn’t make you injury prone. Not like he is missing 30 games a year with ankle sprains 

[rbmw263]

It’s a wild turnaround for sure. Light schedule has played a part (although it’s been as tough as anything an eastern conference team sees)

[EagleMountainUte]

Jazz actually are near the top in beating teams over .500. 

[Utah]

Jazz have got to finish 10-5 to make the playoffs, I believe. They “should” win their next five. That would mean a 5-5 record to finish the year. Very realistic. 

[EagleMountainUte]

ESPN has them at 7th in their power rankings. 18-2 since January 24. Like you said next five games against teams close to 20 games below .500. So should go 5-0. The Spurs on the 23rd is HUGE if they win that. Back end of a back to back though always seem like the case against the Spurs. At GS, At Minnesota, At Portland all games that could throw them down in the standings. That Portland game to the end the season could be critical. Maybe Portland rests their guys because they wrap up the three seed. 

[stats guy]

fivethirtyeight.com now has them at a 93% chance of making the playoffs. They were dead 20 games ago, and could finish 28-8. If the rest of the season plays out the way they are projecting, the Jazz will finish in a 3 way tie for 4th place with Minnesota and OKC. I have no idea what the tiebreakers are, but can you imagine going from out of the playoffs on March 12th to 4th place in the West on April 11th?

Of course, things would have to play out just as they predicted, and they won’t, but wow, what a change. Can you believe at one point in the season Utah was 3-15 on the road?