Utah Jazz clinch playoff berth, media takes note

There’s plenty of Jazz-related articles to read today, after Utah clinched a spot in the 2018 NBA Playoffs. If they take care of business, the Jazz could very well end up with the 3rd or 4th seed and home court advantage. After months of playing this way, the media has finally started to take note. Here’s an excerpt from a frzhoops.com article:

The Jazz are, really, the antithesis of the current NBA. They never peaked and won a championship, nor did they hit rock bottom with consecutive top-5 picks. They simply improved, gradually, without much in the way of stars — all the way to potentially a top-4 seed in the NBA’s far more difficult conference.

For that, they should be celebrated.

ESPN took the “they lost Hayward but are still good” approach:

The same can be said about the Jazz. After losing Hayward to the Celtics in free agency, Utah could have been devastated and just slipped into rebuilding mode. No one would have argued with that, especially after the Jazz got off to a slow start and Gobert went down twice with injuries.

Even as Utah was turning its season around, it traded Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson away at the trade deadline. So with Hayward and George Hill departing in free agency, and Hood being traded away, Utah enters this postseason without three of its top four scorers from a season ago when it finished with 51 wins and reached the Western Conference semifinals before being swept by the Golden State Warriors.

Joe Ingles was asked his feelings on the matter.

Not long after the Utah Jazz clinched a coveted spot in the Western Conference playoffs, Joe Ingles was asked how satisfying it was to prove people wrong who might’ve overlooked the Jazz after Gordon Hayward departed for the Boston Celtics in free agency last summer.

”Who?”

A fun fact to round all of this out:

This team has been really special to follow this season. We do not yet know who we will face in the playoffs because of how tight this race is, but we do know that with our style of play, the Jazz should have a fighting chance against anybody else in the first round. If you’d like to read more about the Jazz clinching the playoff spot, our own JWalk67 put out a “By the Stats” article, delving into the stats of the playoff-clinching game against the Lakers. James Hansen expressed his feelings via Facebook Live. We’ll continue to keep you covered as the Jazz finish off this season and start their journey through the playoffs.

Shoe watch! Donovan was given some hot new kicks for the game last night by a custom shoe designer, called @Kickstradomis.

Man, the Jazz have had some insanely good shoes throughout this year.

The NBA Twitter account posted this video on Quin Snyder, called “This Is Why I Coach”, where we get a small glimpse into what it takes to be an NBA head coach.

I will once again say that he has my vote for coach of the year, if the committee doesn’t want to give Mike D’Antoni the award twice in a row.

Joe Ingles got some new threads after his monster dunk last night.

Seriously, this team couldn’t be more fun to cover.

For anybody who missed it, or wants to relive its glory, here is the Joe Ingles dunk from last night.

Here are the current Western Conference NBA standings, courtesy of NBA.com:

The Jazz are holding onto the 4th seed. They are one game behind Portland and the 3rd seed. They are one game ahead of New Orleans, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. All of these teams only have two games left. The Jazz have a back-to-back starting at home on Tuesday vs. the Golden State Warriors who are looking to get back into rhythm before the playoffs start, and finishing Wednesday away in Portland with a huge game against the Trailblazers. Pull out your crystal balls, where do you think we’ll end up?