Utah Jazz Week Eighteen Outlook, Predictions

The Utah Jazz will look to make their first surge after the All-Star break against two challenging Eastern Conference opponents in Week 18 of NBA action.

The All-Star festivities have come and gone and while a few days remain between now and the end of the break (one of those of course being the highly-anticipated trade deadline day), the Jazz will be back in action at the tail end of the week to take on two tough Eastern Conference opponents. With just 25 games left in the season, Utah has a lot of work to do in very little time if they hope to nab home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

In Utah’s last week of action before the All-Star break, they took on just two opponents in the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers. The loss to LA was perhaps one of the most disheartening and uninspiring performances of the year, but at least Utah was able to bounce back with a blowout win over the Blazers.

Hopefully that victory will allow them to come out of the break with some measure of confidence and help put them on an upward trajectory.

While I didn’t foresee Utah’s merciless slaughter at the hands of the Clippers, I did project last week that LA would indeed arise victorious and I also picked Utah to defeat the Blazers, although they did it in much more convincing fashion than I had projected.

Therefore, while Utah went 1-1 last week, I went 2-0 raising my predictions record to 37-20 for the season. As such, I continue to build my lead on the Jazz, but I’m pulling for them to play rejuvenated ball in the upcoming weeks and surge past me sooner rather than later.

The Jazz will come out of the break with a three-game road trip that will begin with two games this week, the first at Milwaukee on Friday and the second at Washington on Sunday. Both of these games will be absolutely vital for the Jazz as they hope to elevate their confidence for a tough upcoming month of March in which they’ll face off against several playoff-caliber teams.

With that being the case, here’s a look at what the Jazz will be up against in a two-game slate in the eighteenth week of NBA action.