Utah Jazz at Atlanta Hawks: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz will look to get their three-game road trip started out on a high note as they take on the Atlanta Hawks tonight.

The last time the Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks faced off, the home team Jazz came away with a commanding 95-68 win. Utah looked simply unstoppable on both ends of the floor as they held Atlanta under 20 points in two quarters (11 in the 2nd and 14 in the 3rd) while shooting a solid 43.8 percent from the field and dominating on the boards by a margin of 55-40.

At the time it was a big bounce-back game for the Jazz who had recently lost four of five. Both teams have now settled somewhat and while the Jazz are currently in sole possession of fourth place in the West, the Hawks are working to move their way into fourth place in their own conference as they trail the Toronto Raptors by just half a game.

So this will most definitely be a clash between two teams with a lot to play for and you can bet that the Hawks will be looking to avenge the embarrassing loss they suffered at the hands of Utah earlier in the season.

Still, they’re just 6-4 over their last 10 and while All-Star Paul Millsap is a consistently solid player, Dennis Schroder is improving rapidly and Dwight Howard is a constant threat, some of Atlanta’s role players have failed to mesh well and the Hawks have struggled to string together many games where they play well for all 48 minutes.

Therefore, the Jazz with their superior depth should be quite capable of taking advantage of a solid, but less than foreboding Hawks team. As long as they play even half as well as they did in the previous contest against Atlanta, Utah will very likely come out on top.