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Another week, another post on the Utah Jazz ' schedule.
Four games this week:
- Monday (today), November 12th @ Toronto Raptors
- Wednesday, November 14th @ Boston Celtics
- Friday, November 16th @ Philadelphia 76ers
- Saturday, November 17th @ Washington Wizards
The Game against Toronto starts things off, and the Raptors aren't the same old Raptors. For one thing, they added Kyle Lowry - a dude who kills us. Their familiar rogues gallery (DeMar DeRozan, Andrea Bargnani, Linas Kleiza, etc) have been bolstered by Jonas Valanciunas -- the big dude who was the only other big dude or worth in the Enes Kanter draft lottery. It will be interesting to see those two bang. The Celtics present a different challenge. Yes, they have added new parts this year -- but it's still Rajon Rondo / Paul Pierce / Kevin Garnett -- three guys Al Jefferson has never won against. The last two games of this four game road trip will be at an injured Philly, and against the hapless Wizards in D.C.
Ideally you want to win tonight and start the trip off on the right foot. Boston is never easy, but at least there's a day of rest there. The Philly / Wash back to back shouldn't be overlooked. Especially if fatigue creeps in -- those two games will be our 7th and 8th road games this month, played on the 16th and 17 nights of this month. That's a lot of travel. It's also a road heavy early schedule -- by the time Saturday comes around it will be our 8th road game in 10 games.
I don't expect a lot of home cooking on this trip; but I do expect a lot of FTA for the other team. It's supposed to be hard, though. And good teams win hard games.
For us to be a good team it has to be partly because of a road winning capability. And that has to start tonight, in Toronto. Gotta get this first road win of the season.