The Utah Jazz have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA in recent weeks. The team is playing some very good basketball, winning with regularity. Since falling a season-high eight games under the .500 mark on December 20th, they have turned things around.
The Jazz have gone 9-2 since that point, as they are now only one game under the .500 mark with a 19-20 record. They have been a very good team at home this season, going 12-5 to this point but have begun figuring things out on the road recently.
That has played a big part in them stringing together wins and moving up in the Western Conference standings. The Jazz are only a 0.5 game behind the Houston Rockets for 10th place, which is the final spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament, and 4.5 games behind the sixth-place New Orleans Pelicans.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lauri Markkanen, Will Hardy, Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson, Utah Jazz Updates
During this most recent stretch, Utah has pulled off three separate three-game winning streaks. The first one was all road victories over the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs. The second was all at home, defeating the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks and Pistons again.
The third one was two road games and one home game, but it stands out for another reason. The caliber of opponents the Jazz faced was very high, going on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks and hosting the Denver Nuggets.
All three teams came into those contests with winning percentages of .650+ with a minimum of 30 games played. According to OptaSTATS on X, formerly Twitter, that makes the Jazz the first team in NBA history to play three such opponents and win all three games by double digits. It happened 524 times in the regular season and no one else has accomplished that feat.
For a young Jazz team that looked to be more interested in tanking and stockpiling assets, it is an impressive accomplishment. Head coach Will Hardy deserves a lot of credit for getting his team back on track as they could have easily folded and sunk to the bottom of the standings in late December.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lauri Markkanen, Will Hardy, Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson, Utah Jazz Updates
Instead, they rallied and are on the cusp of battling for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Lauri Markkanen is playing like an All-Star once again and the team is getting solid contributions from up and down the roster, but especially from Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton.
While the Jazz roster could look different in a few weeks once the NBA Trade Deadline rolls around, for now, they are clicking on the court and playing at a high level.
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