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Climbing back up the Standings- Downbeat #1839

By JuMu
Quin senses weakness above him in the Western Conference Standings and is damn set on climbing up the standings where the Jazz belong
Quin senses weakness above him in the Western Conference Standings and is damn set on climbing up the standings where the Jazz belong
Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

Apparently yesterday was some sort of non-basketball sporting event, Super Bowl L. 'Twas a nice (likely) end to all-time NFL great Peyton Manning's career. This is just a Jazz fan's typical hate but I'm glad one NBA "star" won't be getting the same sendoff:

We can't always get what we wish for Magic, now can we?

Looks like some happiness is being thrown around by a couple of our Jazz players:

And we're happy for you Joe, you lovable scamp!

In other news, the Jazz are currently amidst their longest winning streak of the season at 6 in a row. Their previously longest winning streak of the season was a measly 2.

The last time they a winning streak this long was last March.

The last time the Jazz had a winning streak of 7 games was back when Deron Williams was carrying our team back in November 2011!

Let's see if the Jazz can start achieving more and more feats for the first time since the Deron Williams era and then see if they can start achieving things for the first time since the Stockton and Malone era if this core achieves to the fullest!

The Jazz only play 2 games this week, both away, before the All Star Break.

They are back to back games with the first being against the Mavs on Tuesday at 6:30 PM

and the second being against the Pelicans at 6 PM.

Getting one or especially both these wins would be huge for our Jazz's team march up the standings!

Speaking of the standings, all you other teams trying to sneak into the playoffs in the West can read 'em and weep:

Source: ESPN

Jazz are now a full 4.5 games ahead of the recently intimidating Kings, and a game ahead of the previously streaking Trailblazers (who are about to hit quite the rough patch in their schedule)

As far as I'm concerned, with the Jazz's moderately big 3 healthy, they should be primarily concerned on who is ahead of them in the standings rather than who is behind.

Jazz are just a half game back of the 7th place Rockets and 2 games behind the 6th place Mavs that they play tomorrow! Things are looking back up again! 6-game winning streaks can do that for a team.

What do you all think about the hack-a-strategy? It's being with used with ever-increasing frequency.

All-time great Jazz beat writer Jody Genessy breaks down how the Suns tried this strategy and failed against Rudy Gobert:

Rudy Gobert makes Suns pay for fouling strategy

One of my favorite excerpts from the piece:

This wasn’t the first time an opponent has purposely fouled Gobert, and the Jazz are hoping it will be the last.

"It can go away because we aren’t taking him out," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "That was a decision we made a week ago, two weeks ago. If we’re going to be the type of team we want to be and he’s going to be the player he wants to be, he has to shoot them and he’s got to make them."

Snyder said he’d make Gobert take 1,000 free throws to fine-tune his precision from the line if necessary.

That, Gobert said, won’t be necessary.

"I practice every day," he said. "I make 10 (straight) easily every day. Again, I’ve just got to think it’s easy."

Source: Rudy Gobert makes Suns pay for fouling strategy

Glad to have a competitor in Gobert that he takes whatever is being thrown at him as a challenge that he is willing to put in the full effort in to overcome, unlike other incompetent-at-free-throws big men.

To segue into another issue involving hack-a-strategies, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been expressing his disdain for the strategy and seems quite insistent on eliminating it. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said the NBA sent an email stating that future cases of players jumping on other players during free throws will now be called as flagrant fouls.

How do you all feel about the hack-a-strategy? Is it more a valid strategic means of pursuing an advantage against teams with certain players or more of a nuisance and loophole that needs to be eradicated?_______________________________________________________________________________

Bonus news dropped minutes after I first published this downbeat!

BREAKING NEWS: Knicks coach Derek Fisher fired, Kurt Rambis will serve as interim.

What a great way to start the week, stay awesome Jazz fans!

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