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Tonight the Utah Jazz can get their 50th win of the 2016-2017 season, and it’s not going to be easy. They will be playing a Portland Trail Blazers team that’s still trying to earn their playoff spot with three games remaining on the season. And they will be playing in Portland - a place where Utah has had a lot of trouble over the years. Since the team was in New Orleans till today we’ve seen the Jazz head north 106 times (including in the playoffs), and leave with a loss more than we’ve seen them leave with a win. Truly, the 29-77 record there (.274) is bad. The regular season record eliminates some of the paint, but not all of it: 28-62 (.311).
After doing the number crunching (which is boring and I’m not going to show all of my work here), we get the following:
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There’s a lot of pain and suffering in Portland. Especially for those of us who are about my age and got to witness the drubbings in Portland in the 1992 WCF. But there’s a glimmer of hope: April.
It’s April right now, after all. So let’s dig a little deeper.
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Hmmmmm, the Jazz have won four of the last five games in Portland that take place in April? Aside from that 32 point loss in April back in ‘92 this is mostly a reasonable month for the Jazz in their gym? And the 8-7 record is a ‘winning’ record?
History is on the side of Utah right now. Go into Portland. Get that 50th win of the season. Get another road win. Get another win against a Western Playoff team. Take advantage of the fact that Portland should also be tired (thanks to all those games against Minny they’ve had to play lately), and still without three of their top bigmen.
#PlayoffPush #50Wins #TakeNote