Preview - Utah Jazz @ Dallas Mavericks

Neither team has played since Sunday when the Mavs put up 81 in the first half against the Suns and the Jazz put up 41 against the Hornets in the first quarter.

The two days off seems a little excessive considering both teams have a lot of games to finish out the season in so little time.  They did however both play four games last week.  It sure seems like the NBA spaces things out pretty well over the course of the season and then shoves as many games as they can in the last two weeks.

I imagine each game for the last two weeks has been the most important game for the Jazz to date.  This night is no exception.

A win puts the Jazz in the driver's seat for the 6th or 7th seed.  A loss puts them in a virtual tie with Dallas though Utah does hold the tiebreaker.  The Jazz would likely have to finish the season 3-1 to match Dallas and to keep the 7th seed.  With roadies against San Antonio and LA, that will be a bit of a stretch.  We'd have to win one of those games and hold serve at home.

The Mavs played out of their minds Sunday against the Suns.  Say what you want about the Jazz defense (which is solid), it's nowhere close to the porous game that the Suns call D.  So we're not likely to see an outburst like that again.

We haven't had much luck @ Dallas in the  Deron Williams era.  We're 1-5 with a couple of blowouts.  And of course there was the heartbreaker last year when Deron looked like he had the game-winner only to have Jirk hit at three at the buzzer on the other end.

Our playoff seeding and thus our season could hinge on this game

Game Thread coming at 7:30

Other blogs,

• Mavs Moneyball