Mavericks Vs. Jazz Game Thread -- Jazz five game win streak starts tonight!

Game 62: Dallas Mavericks (34-27, Road: 13-17) @ Utah Jazz (31-30, Home: 21-8)

Jazz five game win streak starts tonight

Tonight is the start of something really great: our end of the season "highway to the danger zone" style 5 game win streak that gets us to the playoffs. No, really, stop laughing. Aviator glasses are cool. Anthony Edwards is a legit action movie star who represents our combat force. And we are a contender, we're not rebuilding. Ask KOC. It's one of the things he actually has had a comment on this season.

Seriously though, the Jazz need to win this game tonight, even if the team does not make the playoffs. You go down fighting. You don't get swept. You defend your home court. And you always aim to knock off the defending champs. If the Jazz want to make the playoffs (to play 4-5 games), they need to treat these next 5 games like they already ARE in the playoffs.

The one thing that we appreciated the most as fans of the Jazz when the Jazz did not make the playoffs in previous seasons was their "never say die" attitude. They had it in the first year after Stockton and Malone where Andrei Kirilenko and a bunch of underdogs went 42-40 and almost made the playoffs. They had it in Deron Williams' rookie season when they shifted the starting lineup to: D-Will, Andrei, Matt Harpring, Carlos Boozer, and Mehmet Okur.

If this season isn't a lost season where zero goals were met the team needs to adopt that "never say die" attitude. Otherwise we're looking at no playoffs, no good lotto picks, and no development for our youth outside of Gordon Hayward. We didn't fix the three point shooting problem. We didn't get a guy on the All-Star team. And we (except in curious stretches) didn't fix the interior defense problem. (It does seem to go away when Kanter and Favors are in the game though . . . )

It's progress if we fix at least one problem a year. It will be progress if the Jazz play hard these last 5 games. Starting tonight.

Liner Notes:

• Mavericks vs Jazz coverage
• Mavericks vs Jazz preview
• Mavs Moneyball
• Raja Bell (UTA), Josh Howard (UTA), Earl Watson (UTA), and C.J. Miles (UTA) are all out for the rest of the season
• Jeremy Evans (UTA) is questionable for tonight
• DeMarre Carroll (UTA) is expected to miss tonight due to a mild concussion and dental work. I've been there
• Lamar Odom (DAL) is . . . uh . . . I don't even know
• Rodrigue Beaubois (DAL) missed last game, and I don't know if he's available tonight