Jazz will definitely fold. Only two of their 10 wins in the current streak were on the road. And they were against Minnesota and Golden State. They will now play 13 of their last 20 on the road against the likes of Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, and finally, the Lakers.
I'm not worried about Utah at all. I'm worried about Denver. Denver has the tiebreaker over us so we have to be tied going into that final game of the season which I'm very glad is at the Rose Garden.
Lol. There's so much more to consider when predicting Utah's final record than just their road record on the season.
While only two wins were on the road, those home wins included games against Boston and LA. You can't expect much more than 10 wins from 10 games including wins vs. last seasons finalists, regardless of where the game is played. Most of those games were fairly comfortable wins too. So right now, they're playing pretty darn well.
And yes, the Jazz do have a poor road record (they did last season too). But at the end of the day your still playing basketball when your on the road. And right now, the Jazz are playing better basketball than they have at any point this season which has to chip away at that disadvantage of playing on the road. Deron Williams is playing at a ridiculous level, Memo can't miss from three, the bench is deep...it's all just clicking. And that's because of health, something that's avoided them until now which has to account for a significant portion of that poor road record this season.
I'm not saying the Jazz will only drop one game this month, but their current form wont disappear entirely purely because they're on the road. They wont be as good, but they should still be a good team. Consequently they'll win some of those road games, which should be enough to get them the Northwest Division. Realistic, winnable games are ones like Atlanta. Utah have won I think nine of the last ten games vs. Atlanta including a blowout a few weeks ago, Miami at 33-28 aren't really anything special, Phoenix are doing their best to go to the lottery and Utah have won four straight season series vs. NO. Also, D-Will usually gets the better of Paul in head to head matchups. Then there's games against teams like Denver, Portland and Dallas. Who with the way they are playing right now Utah are simply better than atm, evidenced by their current climb up the standings despite a disastrous 2008. Being on the road just makes the home team probably the slightest of favourites.
San Antonio is pretty much an automatic L though, haven't won there since the last millennium. I don't expect to take down the Magic or Lakers on their floor either.
Another thing going in Utah's favour is that they're also experienced in high pressure, playoff atmosphere games with the current core having gone to the playoffs recently. Somewhere Portland hasn't been in a while (though you will get there this season).
They also have seven home games left, and winning them all is a fairly realistic expectation with the only seemingly playoff bound team being Houston. That same team Utah enjoy knocking out in the first round and just took care of at home.
