The two hottest teams in the NBA right now are the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz, who have both won nine games in a row. I've blogged a lot about the Lakers this season, so it's time for me to focus on the Jazz. At the moment, the Jazz are 27-12, putting them at third place in the Western Conference standings.
During this nine game winning streak, the Jazz have posted the following results (home in bold; road in italics): Jazz 121 Trail Blazers 115. Jazz 120 Clippers 107. Jazz 104 Pistons 81. Jazz 102 Bulls 98. Jazz 109 Magic 96. Jazz 128 Pelicans 126. Jazz 128 Knicks 104. Jazz 109 Hornets 92. Jazz 127 Wizards 116.
As you can see, the Jazz have won most of these games away from Salt Lake City, which is scary considering the fact that they are historically not a very good road team. On that note, the Jazz are now 15-3 at home on the season and 12-9 on the road. If they can keep up their success on the road and continue to dominate at home, they'll be serious contenders come April, May, and possibly June.
What's made this streak all the more impressive is the fact that the Jazz are doing this without their big offseason acquisition Mike Conley (13.6 points and 4.6 assists), who is out indefinitely with a hamstring injury. This is truly a testament to their depth and versatility. Donovan Mitchell (24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.1 steals), Bojan Bogdanovic (21.0 points and 4.3 rebounds), Rudy Gobert (14.8 points, 14.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks), and Joe Ingles (10.8 points) have done a great job at picking up the slack.
Ultimately, how far this Jazz team goes will come down to whether or not Conley and Bogdanovic make the impact in the playoffs that everyone thinks they will and whether or not Mitchell and Gobert can raise their level of play. If this team stays healthy and continues to ball out like they have been, there's no reason to doubt their ability to make some serious noise in the playoffs. I'm not ready to deem them the favorites to come out of the Western Conference, but I could absolutely see them reach the conference finals. Pending on who they face, it's conceivable they play their way into June.
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