:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69290877/1318055781.0.jpg)
The Utah Jazz took care of business against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight. It’s a sigh of relief for Jazz fans knowing that they only have one game left to win in order to wrap up their first number one seed since 1998. Not that the number one seed guarantees playoff success, but since 2006-07 only twice has the number one seed not advanced to the Finals in the Western Conference. If you can finish at the top of the West it is a great indicator that you might be a legit good team and the Jazz have shown that for large portions of this season.
The game tonight was pretty uncompetitive. The Thunder showed a little grit early in the game and hung with the Jazz for most of the first quarter, but by halftime this game was over. It almost felt like a pre season game in the middle of the last week of the season. The Thunder have some intriguing pieces in guys like Darius Bazley and Svi Mykhailiuk but in all reality they are a long way away from being rebuilt into a contender. It will be interesting to see what the savy GM Sam Presti can pull off to improve the team this summer.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22516072/1318052498.jpg)
For the Jazz you can’t really take much from a game like this but it was nice to see Mike Conley back and he looked pretty good in his 16 minutes of play. Conley registered 10 points and 3 assists during the first half but more importantly he looked like he was pain free and moving well. It was also nice to see him re-connect with Rudy Gobert on the court. Bojan Bogdanovic continued his streak of good play with 22 points on 8-16 shooting for the night. It was also nice to see the Jazz go deep into their bench tonight and give the young guys a chance to tune up before the playoffs.
Game 72 of 72 is on Sunday and the Jazz will know whether or not they need to win that game before they even start playing so we will see if they use the game as a chance to give the starters rest but either way it will be fun to see the team wrap up such a great season in the history of the franchise.