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I'm going to try to start my Season Reviews for this year a little early . . . last year we didn't even get them finished.
In 2011-12 the Jazz started off slow, and then caught on fire down the stretch. It was a successful season as the team won 54.5% of their regular season games and secured a spot in the playoffs. These are two things the team did not do the season before. So, even with the least amount of data (two points) we're moving upwards. It was a lock out shortened year with a deadly compacted schedule of only 66 games in little over 5 months.
Did you know that the division that gave us the most trouble last season was the Southwest? The next most difficult division to beat was the Atlantic division. There are some quirks to each division, but let's look at the table first.
| Utah Jazz 2011-12 W/L by Division and Conference | |||||||
| Opponent | W | L | % | PPG | O.PPG | Net PPG | |
| vs. Atlantic | 3 | 4 | 42.9% | .. | 97.3 | 97.9 | -0.6 |
| vs. Central | 4 | 2 | 66.7% | .. | 101.3 | 97.2 | 4.1 |
| vs. Southeast | 4 | 1 | 80.0% | .. | 101.2 | 99.3 | 1.9 |
| vs. Southwest | 7 | 10 | 41.2% | . | 98.4 | 98.7 | -0.3 |
| vs. Northwest | 9 | 4 | 69.2% | .. | 112.4 | 107.4 | 5 |
| vs. Pacific | 9 | 9 | 50.0% | .. | 96.4 | 97.9 | -1.5 |
| vs. East | 11 | 7 | 61.1% | .. | 102.8 | 100.3 | 2.5 |
| vs. West | 25 | 23 | 52.1% | .. | 98.5 | 98.6 | -0.1 |
| vs. All | 36 | 30 | 54.5% | .. | 99.7 | 99.0 | 0.7 |
Right off the bat the thing to be happy about was our 9 and 4 record against our own division. We picked up wins against each team, and swept the Blazers. (We started the pre-season off last year with a loss in Portland). What's not so hot is our record vs. the Pacific. It's not just the Lakers that we need to worry about. we had our hands full with the Suns, Kings, and Warriors -- three lotto teams. Against the Suns the Jazz went 1-2; against the Kings the Jazz went 2-2; and against the Warriors we just barely went 3-1. Two of those wins were based on last second-ish plays (one to send it to over time, and another to prevent a Monta Ellis game winner in a game he had already scored 32 points on us. Still, going 6-5 vs. lottery teams when (on paper) we should have gone at least 8-3 makes us a lower seed than we'd like.
If you have any questions I'll be more than willing to look into them and report back.