Where Things Stood: Still, actually. Back when COVID-19 reared its ugly head, it was with the Utah Jazz – Rudy Gobert, and later Donovan Mitchell – specifically. Gobert testing positive for the CoronoVirus minutes before tipping off with the Oklahoma City Thunder in OKC was the shock heard ‘round the world as basketball came to a screeching halt with the Jazz sitting at 41-23, just a game against the team they were set to face that night. The winner of that game could have had serious implications in what was setting up to be an exciting playoff sprint at the fourth, fifth, and sixth seeds in the Western Conference.
What’s Coming Up: Seems time off has smoothed nerves, anxieties and feelings between Gobert and his teammates, though there is rampant speculation that the Jazz may part ways with the defensive big man after all is said and done in 2019-20, assuming we resume. If so, then this is the Jazz’s window … and a small opening at that, but one they have to go at with everything they have if they hope to be known by more than an also-ran.
Game 1: New Orleans Pelicans – As we all know, the NBA did their damndest and their best to get Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans some exposure in this 22-team tournament, despite their 28-36 mark on March 12th. But, despite their 28-36 showing, the Pelicans were getting better, more fluid with Williamson in the mix, with the young big man getting his feet under him to the tune of 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists, while shooting 58.9 percent. The ball distribution was getting nice, too, but understand that Gobert does a nice job of smothering other things besides microphones and digital voice recorders – the man has 850 rebounds season to date, third in the league. I’m taking Utah in this one.
Game 2: Oklahoma City Thunder – Ahh, the game that never was. Call this the game with the longest pre-game in NBA history – nearly four and a half months before it will be played (if it is). Chris Paul’s presence may be soaking up payroll in Oklahoma City, but the dividends were trending toward it being worth it to have all those monies tied up as Paul’s experience and leadership certainly had been rubbing off on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schroder. I think the time off benefits the Jazz more so than the young Thunder.
Game 3: Los Angeles Lakers – Two wins in the bubble won’t mean momentum as the Jazz go up against a team that’s felt entitled to win the 2020 NBA Championship since they started tampering with Anthony Davis last season. Dwight Howard seems refocused on winning his first-ever NBA title despite flirting with being a social justice warrior for a millisecond, and Rajon Rondo’s physique was looking phenomenal until he buggered up his hand again in practice earlier today. But the four-plus month respite couldn’t have benefit anyone more than LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who were all but unstoppable throughout the first 63 games. One wondered when one of them would break down physically and tire out, but they never did. They won’t against the Jazz in this game either.
Game 4: Memphis Grizzlies – If there was a team that was coming together faster and more convincingly than the New Orleans Pelicans, it was Taylor Jenkins’ Memphis Grizzlies, who came to a screeching halt at 32-33 on March 12th, the rightful and sole owners of the eighth and final playoff spot in the West before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took a left turn at George Karl’s house and dug up the ‘best records’ tourney format. Ja Morant is on track for the Rookie of the Year (sorry, Zion), and Jaren Jackson, Jr. was rounding out a nice sophomore campaign for the Grizzlies’ 1-2 punch this year and going forward. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies don’t have enough weapons to compete with Mitchell, Gobert, and Bojan Bogdanovic, who has been a nice addition to the arsenal that Utah carries with them into this tournament. 3-1 halfway through.
Game 5: San Antonio Spurs – If you think the NBA worked its magic to get the Pelicans into this playoff tournament, then you have to admit the San Antonio Spurs got here on Gregg Popovich’s street cred alone. The Man’s a legend – especially when 27-36 can get you a playoff nod from The Commish. (If you’re the teams in the East that didn’t get in, take a long, hard look in the mirror; if you’re the Sacramento Kings, thank yourselves that you were a half game up on the Spurs). San Antonio always plays tough and is an unpredictable collection of underachievers and has-beens this season. That works to Utah’s favor, but I think the Jazz fall soft and lose this game unexpectedly.
Game 6: Denver Nuggets – The only back-to-back in the Jazz’s painstaking eight game, malnourished foodstuff, and regular-to-moderate hotel room run might be their toughest game yet. Yes, I said they’d lose to the Lakers, but that’s a given. Losing to the Nuggets would be a travesty because this is a team who’s done it right from the draft up and been successful. Though it could be argued Utah did the same, they’ve plucked a couple in trade and free agency and this will boil down to Mitchell and Gobert, and how they contain under-the-radar guys like Will Barton and Gary Harris. Jazz by a couple, maybe even overtime.
Game 7: Dallas Mavericks – This will likely be their third loss of the playoffs Luke Doncic will straight toy with them and then destroy the Jazz. This will be the team’s worst loss of the tourney and Rick Carlisle will outcoach Quin Snyder on rotations and matchups. Not only is Doncic dropping 28.7 a night while shooting 46.1 percent, but he’s dishing out 8.7 dimes a game, just a shade under Ricky Rubio, Trae Young, and LeBron James. 4-3 after tonight for the Jazz.
Game 8: San Antonio Spurs – Utah will rebound from an earlier, uglier game versus the Spurs. Gobert and Mitchell will dominate, Bogdanovic will be an assassin from the field, but the X factors will be Jordan Clarkson and Dejounte Murray, and Clarkson will win the battle. This may be the game that starts and fuels speculation about Popovich’s eventual and ultimate retirement. It’s a must win for the Jazz to finish 5-3, though they may still be on the outside looking in.
Prediction: Eight games for all the marbles and to be riding the fence a game above .500 may not be where the Jazz want to be. But the eight game stretch will tell us what the Utah Jazz – and every team in the bubble, for that matter – are truly made of. They’ve got to watch film of these seven teams they’ll be facing and exploit every weakness of each team to do better than 5-3, the 60-63 percent mark the Jazz almost always attain to season in and season out. Being bounced may cost Quin Snyder his job, so they have to do better than 5-3 to be in the thick of things. Can they? Absolutely. Will they? If they don’t, then they’re the same ol’ Utah Jazz. Same song, different day.
Tracy Graven is a Senior NBA Analyst for BackSportsPage.com.
He has written the NBA, and done NBA radio, for the last two decades for HoopsWorld, Swish Magazine, and HoopsHype, the Coach Scott Fields Show and NBARadioShow.com, and is also tackling the NFL, NCAA, and will be pinch-hitting on some Major League Baseball coverage for BackSportsPage.
He’s spent 20 years in locker rooms in
- Orlando
- Boise (G League)
- San Antonio
- Phoenix
- Denver
- Oklahoma City
- Atlanta
A corporate trainer by day, he currently resides in SEC Country near Knoxville, Tennessee.
Reach him on Twitter at @RealTMoneyMedia
