Win or Lose in Game 6, Utah Jazz Will Play on Sunday

A potential Game 7 between the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers was already scheduled for Sunday, but if Utah closes out the series in Game 6, they’ll be up against their next opponent on that same day as well.

After winning Game 5 on the road in impressive fashion to take a 3-2 lead over the Los Angeles Clippers back to Salt Lake City, the Utah Jazz are in an excellent position to close out their first-round series in Friday’s Game 6 bout. As I mentioned last night, probability certainly favors the Jazz and as long as they can shore up a few minor areas of concern, they should be in good shape.

However, should there be a Game 7, that contest would take place back at Staples Center and, as we’ve known all series long, it would be on Sunday, April 30th.

But in what may come as a surprise to some, per the Utah Jazz’s David Locke, it turns out that regardless of whether the Jazz win or lose on Friday, they’ll be playing on Sunday afternoon. The obvious difference would be that if they win, they’ll face a new opponent in the Golden State Warriors.

According to the tweet sent out by Locke last night, the Jazz will play at 1:30 pm MT on ABC against either the Clippers (if Utah loses Game 6) or the Warriors (if Utah wins Game 6). If the Jazz do defeat the Clippers on Friday, that leaves very little turnaround time to then prepare to face the top-seeded Warriors on Sunday.

Assuming the Jazz win Friday, Golden State would come into the Western Conference Semi-Finals off of five whole days of rest since they swept the Portland Trail Blazers back on Monday, April 24th. Several Jazz fans expressed discontent towards the announcement in Locke’s tweet, pointing out that the quick turnaround against a daunting Golden State team would give Utah very little time to rest and recover for their next series:

To be frank, in a lot of ways I agree with the sentiment of the fans above. The whole point of the playoffs is to allow teams to do battle on a hypothetically level playing field (excluding the earned home court advantage, of course). Some might argue that if the Jazz were to lose on Friday, they’d play on Sunday anyway, but the issue also has just as much to do with preparation for a new team as it has to do with rest.

While of course there’s no way the Jazz could or even should match the extensive amount of rest that Golden State earned by being the top seed and taking care of business by sweeping the lowest seed in the West, it still seems as if allowing Utah one more day of recovery and preparation before initiating a new series would make a whole lot of sense.

That may sound like a homer comment (I mean in the bad way, not in the Chris Paul supposed compliment way), but I would truly wish the same thing for any other match-up in the league for the sake of seeing the best basketball possible, if nothing else. After all, regardless of what happens in these opening rounds, the NBA Finals won’t take place until June, so why rush things in a way that seems almost unnecessary, right?

Of course part of it is the fact that the NBA would love to slot a popular team like the Warriors in that Sunday afternoon prime time slot on ABC, which I certainly understand, even if I don’t like it.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to make the argument that the Warriors earned the right to go into the Western Conference Semi-Finals well-rested and face a potentially winded team given that Golden State dominated all year, earned the top seed in the conference and made light work of their first round opponent while the Jazz took extra time to arise victorious (assuming they do, that is).

So while it’s not necessarily ideal for Utah to have to turn around and play Golden State that quickly, it’s really not all that surprising and to be honest, it isn’t the end of the world. Defeating the Warriors will be an incredibly difficult task for any team and it’s not all that likely that the extra day would make much of a difference anyway.

NBA teams are used to playing back-to-backs and excruciating four games in five nights stretches during the regular season, so even having one day off between every postseason game is without a doubt a welcome sight. Furthermore, there’s also the somewhat unfounded but perhaps true point of view that Utah could benefit from turning around and playing so quickly given that they’ll have momentum while the long-resting Warriors could face a bit of a hangover.

Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but also I’m getting very much ahead of myself.

It’s absolutely vital to note that by no means is Game 6 against LA, or the series in general for that matter, a guaranteed win for the Jazz. The Clippers are a phenomenal team and each game between Utah and LA has been closely contested. It’s more than likely that Friday’s bout will be more of the same and truly could go either way.

Thus, in no way am I trying to insinuate in this piece that the Jazz are for sure going to be playing the Warriors on Sunday. The Clippers could very well surge or the Jazz could falter. My intention is to simply point out that it’s interesting to note that the Jazz will play Sunday afternoon no matter what happens in Game 6.

With that being the case, I have a feeling that several Jazz fans are going to feel the same way as this Twitter user below:

Yet, even though it’s no guarantee, ideally Utah will prevail in Game 6 and thus will be matched up against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. If such is the case, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Utah a little winded, but with so much on the line and the stakes at their highest as the Jazz would prepare to face the best team in the NBA, I’m confident that this Utah team would still be ready to go, despite the quick turnaround time.

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Considering all the adversity Utah has faced this season in the form of injuries, dealing with some fatigue due to having one less day off than what would be ideal should be a quite surmountable obstacle for them.

And regardless of what happens on Friday, the fact of the matter is that Utah will be in for a challenge on Sunday and will have to be at their absolute best whether it’s a Game 7 against the Clippers or a Game 1 against the Warriors.