Utah Jazz at Denver Nuggets: Keys to the Game
As the Utah Jazz prepare to play their fourth game in five days, they could be in for a rough go in a road game against the Denver Nuggets.
After winning six straight games, and charging up the standings to a tie for fourth place in the West, the Utah Jazz appeared to be on a roll in a big way. However, that streak was suddenly put to an end in a tough loss to Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.
In a game that was neck-and-neck for all of 48 minutes, the Jazz fell short in the final seconds as Russell Westbrook nailed the game-winner with just over a second left in the game. What could have potentially been the most incredible game for the Jazz so far this season turned instead into a major heartbreak.
https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/823749027640541185
Nevertheless, the Jazz will have little time to hang their heads as they’ll be back on the hardwood once again tonight as they prepare to face a quickly-improving Denver Nuggets team in the second night of a back-to-back and the fourth game in five nights.
And that tough scheduling situation doesn’t bode well for the Jazz as even against OKC last night, several players looked simply gassed, including Utah’s two leading scorers George Hill and Gordon Hayward who struggled to have the impact that we’ve grown accustomed to. Just two nights removed from outmatching point guard Jeff Teague, Hill found himself very much outmatched by recent All-Star starter snub Russell Westbrook.
George Hill was 2-of-10 and -13. He's coming back down to earth, and it's understandably tougher to win as he does.
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) January 24, 2017
Probably Hill and Hayward's worst game all year -13 and -17, respectively.
— Ponce De Leon, constantly on (@prodigal_punk) January 24, 2017
Therefore, in tonight’s game against Denver, which is a team that one would typically expect Utah to beat, they may be in for a tough go, having played so many games in such a short period of time. The combination of having to travel and play on tired legs could very well prove to be too much to overcome against a high-octane Nuggets team.
Winners of four of their last six, the Nuggets have sneaked their way into the Western Conference playoff mix by taking hold of the eighth seed despite holding just an 18-25 record.
Although they lost the last two games against the Jazz, Denver was able to run Utah out of the Pepsi Center in the two teams’ first meeting earlier this season in what ended up as a 105-91 Nuggets victory. And unfortunately, unless the Jazz put together a much better game than they did against OKC last night, the same thing could very well happen again tonight.