Where will the Utah Jazz finish in the Western Conference Contest?

What a game last night. After defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 116-99 in New Orleans, the Jazz have a record of 37-30. We are essentially tied for the 8th seed, whilst simultaneously being 1.5 games behind the 4th seed. Last year, we were 42-25, in the fourth seed. 42 wins at this moment would put us into the third seed just above Portland’s 40 wins. The Western Conference has seen some major shake-ups, and the seeds between 3rd and 10th seem to be much closer than I remember them being in recent years. The Jazz could legitimately win their way to a 4th-seeded playoff berth, how insane would that be? Keep an eye out today for an article from MyLo, what the Jazz have done after such a slow start is historic and legendary in nature.

After the win last night, Jae Crowder tweeted:

For your visual pleasures, here are the current Western Conference NBA standings, courtesy of NBA.com:

From the standings, I see four distinct tiers. 1) Championship contenders, including Houston and Golden state. 2) Playoff competitive teams, seeds 3-10 all within 1.5 games of one another. 3) The Lakers; they aren’t tanking hard enough to get another likely top 3 pick, but they are not winning near enough to make it to the playoffs. 4) Tankers; these teams want to lose, the “o” next to their names signifies that none of them have any chance of making the playoffs, even if they won every one of their remaining games.

Taking a look around the league, tne surprise for me this season has been San Antonio. Granted, they have been struck by the injury bug that we are so painfully familiar with ourselves, but their depth has not been very impressive. Manu Ginobili can only do so much as an eighty-year-old. While they are still in the playoff race, they are not near contention. Another surprise is New Orleans. With so many players on their team that you’ve never heard of, they sure are winning at a respectable rate. Anthony Davis must be doing something right.

According to http://fivethirtyeight.com, the Utah Jazz have a 92% chance of making the playoffs. On the road to the playoffs, Donovan Mitchell has made history in so many ways. Here is one of those ways.

According to the Jazz’ Twitter account, the previous record was 150 threes in 68 days, by Damian Lillard. All of these comparisons to stars makes me think we’ve struck gold with Donovan Mitchell. How much more can we gush about this kid? As a 21-year-old, he is playing out of his mind, dropping dimes, raining threes and hammering down dunks. Let’s take a moment and appreciate what he’s doing.

Meanwhile, Ante Tomic is over in Barcelona doing some Michael Jordan impressions.

If you don’t remember, the Jazz still have Ante Tomic’s rights, but he is still playing ball in Europe.

It is advised that the upcoming two videos be played at the same time (mute the second video).

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the Jazz play a brand of basketball that looks almost like it would fit a Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals game. The passing is crisp, and with the hand-offs and quick pick-n-rolls, the defense is left scrambling to understand how to react. The Jazz might not have the superfluous ballhandling tricks the Globetrotters use for entertainment purposes, but the Jazz remain extremely entertaining to watch. Coach Quin Snyder’s offense is nothing to be taken lightly.

In non-Jazz news, March Madness is upon us! Don’t forget to put your brackets in today. Who are your first round picks, and why? I’m fairly certain my bracket is already busted even though there hasn’t been a game played yet.