The Utah Jazz March 2008

I am a huge Utah Jazz fan. However, even though they are playing fairly well, they only have the 7th best record in the West. The West is unbelievable this year. If Utah has a small losing streak, they could easily slide out of the playoffs even though they are currently 16 games over .500. It would be extremely disappointing for the Jazz to not make the playoffs after reaching the Western Conference Finals the year before. The Jazz are currently 2.5 games ahead of Denver in the Northwest Division. This would give us the 4th seed. However, as a Jazz fan I would not be satisfied to only make the playoffs. I want the Jazz to at least win the first round. At this point, I am afraid that the only way the Jazz will win the first round this year is to have home court advantage. To do this we must have at least the 4th best record in the West. This will be extremely difficult to do considering the 6 teams that are ahead of the Jazz: San Antonio, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas. I believe that San Antonio and Los Angeles will be nearly impossible to pass. However, I am still not a believer in New Orleans. I believe that they will begin to slide as the season wears on due to their lack of experience. I also think that Houston will begin to slide with the huge loss of Yao Ming. This would just leave us with the need to pass Phoenix or Dallas, both of which have been incredible the last few years. However, both teams chemistry seems to be falling apart this year which may offer an opportunity for the Jazz to sneak up on them. Phoenix seems to be struggling since the trade for Shaq which seems like an awful trade to me. I understand that they took a gamble hoping to shake things up for a run to the championship, but Shaq is just not what he used to be and does not fit into their style of play.

My last thought is regarding what the Jazz must do to make this run. They have been dominant at home, but on the road they have been horrible. The Jazz must simply put all of their efforts into figuring out how to win on the road. I don't know what the answer is...but it seems like they lack energy and intensity on the road. If they can learn to overcome this challenge, than look out for the Jazz as a dark horse for this season's playoffs.