Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Clippers: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz are in for their biggest game of the year up to this point tomorrow afternoon as they visit the Los Angeles Clippers, who are just 1.5 games back for fourth place.

Prior to this season’s start, it was no secret that the Utah Jazz had had their fair share of struggles against the Los Angeles Clippers as they had won just two of the previous 17 contests. In an early November bout against LA on the road and a later one at home just before the All-Star break, that trend looked set to continue as Utah failed to put up more than 75 points in either contest and was thoroughly embarrassed both times.

Not only did those two losses push the Jazz’s record against the Clippers over the last six years to 2-17, but it also raised the question, will the Jazz have any chance at all against the Clippers in what appears to be a very likely first-round playoff match-up?

The answer to that question still remains to be seen of course, but the outlook got a little brighter the last time Utah and LA faced off as the Jazz were able to use a huge second half in which they put up 40 points in the third quarter and outscored the Clips by 13 in the final two periods to come away with an impressive win.

Yet, while it was certainly good to see the Jazz get the Clippers monkey off their backs, the question that now remains is, was that victory an anomaly or an actual indication of a reversal of the former trend?

Well, we likely won’t have to wait long to receive the answer to that question as the Jazz will face off against the Los Angeles Clippers for the fourth and final time this season tomorrow afternoon in Los Angeles. And as I mentioned earlier today, while the Jazz’s current 1.5-game lead means they’ll stay in fourth place tomorrow regardless of the outcome of the game, there’s still no questioning the importance of this contest if they hope to remain there through the season’s end.

So hopefully we see a similar Jazz team to the one that came out against LA in the prior meeting and not the team that has shown up in all but the final two quarters against the Knicks in Utah’s last four contests. For that to be the case, the Jazz will particularly need to excel in the following key areas.