Utah Jazz Need A Miracle
After what seemed like such a promising end-of-year run into the playoffs, the Utah Jazz appear poised and ready to break our hearts once again.
Can anyone think of a more fitting ending for this up and down, roller coaster season than for the Jazz to finish out of the playoffs by way of a tiebreaker? Well, barring a miracle in tonight’s games, that will likely be exactly the case.
A mere six days ago, it looked like the Jazz were a shoo-in to make the playoffs. Houston had just dropped a doozy to the hapless Phoenix Suns and the Jazz would face a Clippers team that would be resting its stars, giving the Jazz an extra cushion ahead of the Rockets.
Or so we thought.
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But in the end, it wasn’t in the cards and the Jazz did what they’ve become so good at over the years: breaking our hearts. While it’s unfair to pin their plight on just one game, the uninspired loss to the Clippers truly was inexcusable. However, considering the Jazz’s history, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Whether it’s in the NBA Finals, Western Conference Finals, or as a fringe playoff team, Utah seems to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Regardless of how high or low the expectations might be, coming up short has become the norm in Salt Lake City. That was certainly the case in Monday’s disappointing loss to the Dallas Mavericks that effectively doomed the Jazz.
Utah shot a terrible 27.3 percent from deep in the contest, including an appalling performance from its supposed leaders, Gordon Hayward and Rodney Hood who went a combined 2 of 19 from behind the arc. Sure, the Jazz were facing an experienced and savvy Mavericks squad, but the loss can largely be attributed to their own poor shooting and, in many instances, poor shot selection.
Of course Gobert’s sprained ankle midway through the second quarter and Favors’ obvious discomfort throughout the game weren’t much help either. What has the potential to be a stout and sturdy frontcourt has largely been reduced to shambles due to this season’s onslaught of injuries.
Thus the Jazz face a highly undesirable situation where their opportunity to qualify for the playoffs is completely out of their own hands. In order to make it, not only do the Jazz have to defeat the Lakers in tonight’s showdown on the road in Kobe Bryant‘s final NBA game (there couldn’t possibly be any referee interference in that situation, could there be?), but they have to hope and pray that somehow the Houston Rockets come out like they did against the Suns and lose.
Unfortunately for the Jazz, Houston’s opponent is perhaps the most uninspired team in the league: the Sacramento Kings.
Even if the Kings had something to play for, counting on them to come out and play with their A-game would be shaky at best. With their playoff hopes long squandered and DeMarcus Cousins out for the final contest, the Jazz will truly need a miracle for the Kings to do them any sort of favor. To make matters worse, the game will be played on Houston’s home court.
The only small ray of hope is that Sacramento did manage to defeat Houston by a score of 107-97 in their last meeting back on December 15th. Perhaps the Kings will carry some confidence over from that victory nearly four months ago and embrace some untapped inner strength to do the Jazz a solid.
But I wouldn’t count on it.
With the Rockets and Kings game tipping off at 6:00 pm MT, the Jazz will likely know whether or not their playoff hopes are alive before their 8:30 contest against LA even starts. If Sacramento does find a way to pull off the upset, Utah has to force themselves to stay focused and not get swept up in the Kobe Bryant festivities that are sure to be taking place. The gifted miracle of a Houston loss would give the Jazz one last opportunity to take care of business and earn their spot into the post-season.
But on the other hand, if Houston somehow managed to lose and get our hopes up, it wouldn’t surprise me if Utah, in typical Jazz fashion, just crushed them all over by losing to the Lakers. And broke our hearts. Once again.
Next: An Open Letter to My Childhood Hero Jerry Sloan
You know what we always say, Jazz fans, there’s always next year…
All stats courtesy of NBA.com/stats