Utah Jazz at Dallas Mavericks: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz will look to win their fifth straight game as they visit a tough Dallas Mavericks team on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Utah Jazz enter Thursday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks following one of their most dominant wins of the season. They defeated New Orleans by a score of 127-94; it was Utah’s second straight 120-point game, the first coming against Atlanta on Monday. It also marked the first time they had put up that many points in back-to-back games since the 2011-12 season.

With these latest two wins, against teams with birds as their mascots (a.k.a. the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Pelicans), the Jazz are outscoring their opponent by 28.3 points per game this season. It almost makes you wish we could change the Spurs’ and Warriors’ mascots to the San Antonio Sparrows and the Golden State Warblers.

Unfortunately, tonight’s bout will not be against a bird, but rather against an improving, horse-mascoted Mavericks team. One that has pushed the Jazz to the brink in both of their two latest contests. Utah required a late three from Rodney Hood to seal the deal in the first of those two and five more minutes of overtime to dispatch Dallas in the most recent game.

Thus, the Jazz will have to be ready to compete against a savvy veteran squad that is fighting to keep its head above water in the race for the eighth seed in the Western Conference and has given them troubles in the past. The Jazz have won all three contests against the Mavs so far this season. A win on Thursday could earn their first four-game regular season series sweep over Dallas since the 1997-98 season.

However, coming in on the second night of a back-to-back to play a rested Dallas team on the road will be far from easy. So the Jazz will look to match their incredible play from the past two games, as well as put heavy emphasis on the following areas if they hope to come out on top and win their fifth game in a row.