NEW YORK — If one thing has been consistent with the Utah Jazz this season, it’s their inconsistency, which makes their game Wednesday against the New York Knicks even more unpredictable than it really should be.
The Jazz, coming off a win in Cleveland on Monday that improved their record on the season to 38-22, currently sit at fifth in the Western Conference, situated one game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder and one game behind the Houston Rockets.
Speaking of the Rockets, if there was any more evidence that the Knicks are not a team that should be underestimated at Madison Square Garden, look no further than the win they posted on Monday when they hosted Houston.
Taking advantage of what the Rockets are lacking — size in the frontcourt — the Knicks pulled out a 125-123 win, a game that multiple Jazz players were watching the final minutes of on their phones as they readied to leave the locker room in Cleveland.
While the tactic of attacking the glass and dominating offensively in the paint worked for the Knicks against the undersized Rockets, conventional wisdom would say that the Jazz have the weapons to counter such an attack. But, conventional wisdom can often come back to bite you in the NBA.
The Jazz look to be progressing and taking steps in the right direction over the last couple games, but the four losses that preceded the two-game win streak the Jazz are currently riding are evidence that their flaws can still rear their ugly head from time to time.
This isn’t just a matter to take into consideration on Wednesday against the Knicks or even through the rest of this road trip that includes the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons. The Jazz don’t have time to take any opponent lightly from now through the end of the season.
That is unless they’d rather drop a couple spots in the standings and take their chances against the second-place Denver Nuggets, rather than a potential repeat postseason appearance against the Rockets, who they would face if the playoffs started tomorrow.
Speaking on Monday night after the Jazz’s 126-113 win in Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell addressed the fact that the team is trending in a good way but still has some defensive holes that need to be addressed.
“Obviously we’re happy with the wins,” he said. “But for us to really get over that hump and where we really want to be, we’ve got to hold teams a little lower than that.”
In order to limit the Knicks on Wednesday, it’s Rudy Gobert who should come into the game with the most motivation and incentive to prove his worth.
Many of the Jazz players looked like they were returning to form on Monday night in Cleveland, but maybe none as much as Gobert, who finished with 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting, was 4 of 4 from the free throw line, and tallied nine rebounds and five blocks in the win.
That’s the kind of rim protection presence down low that is going to be needed against a Knicks team that outscored the Rockets in the paint 64-36 and outrebounded them 65-34.
The good thing is that an area that has been hampering the Jazz lately — limiting opponent’s fast-break points — likely won’t be a huge factor in New York as the Knicks score the fewest transition points in the NBA.
All things considered, on paper there is no reason that the Jazz should lose to the Knicks (19-42) on Wednesday. But what is on paper doesn’t always translate to the court and if the Jazz have learned anything lately it should be that underestimating any opponent is a very dangerous game.
With the playoffs just 22 games away, playing dangerous would be a very bad idea.
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Knicks’ win over Rockets should motivate Utah Jazz to come ready to fight - Deseret News
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