This tune cannot be stopped: on the Utah run

by

Beginning of an article

In the late 1990s the Utah Jazz had a great band. Led by the legendary John Stockton and Carl Malone, the franchise from Salt Lake City reached the NBA Finals two years in a row – and was stopped, of course, by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. More than 20 years after those disappointments, the Utah Jazz are once again a great band. Sorry, Correction – is the best team in the NBA. Will there be someone to stop this tune this time?

Naturally, one of the teams that is expected to threaten Utah’s desire to win a historic championship is the reigning champion, the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, early in the morning (Wednesday to Thursday), the Western leader met LeBron James and his gang – and provided another statement of intent in the form of an 89: 114 victory. True, the champion has arrived with a lack of staff, including without Anthony Davis, but the dominance of the jazz should not be questioned. And the numbers back it up.

The figures of the Jazz following the recent victory are no less phenomenal. Kevin Snyder’s team has won 22 of its last 24 games. In 20 of these games they also won by a double-digit margin. Simply amazing. Utah averages 116 points per game and absorbs 105.9, meaning it stands at a double-digit average (10.1) over its 32 games (6:26 balance). The next high average followed: 7.7 for the Milwaukee Bucks (13:19).

In addition, the Jazz also put a given in the history books tonight: after setting a franchise record with 28 threes in a 110: 132 victory over Charlotte, the Western leader sniped 22 more times out of the arc against the Los Angeles Lakers – thus becoming the first team in the history of the NBA scoring 50 threes in two games. Jazz, as you probably already understand, are at their own pace.


And despite everything, Utah is well aware that this is just the beginning. “We do not want to be the best team in February, we want to be the best in July (then the NBA Finals will be held),” the young star stated Donovan Mitchell. “The best thing that happened tonight is that we did not get our foot off the gas,” the guard referred to the performance on the way to the impressive victory over the champion.

Are Mitchell and friends really capable of taking LeBron off the throne? Across the league, well, rest assured that Utah is indeed the real thing. “They’re trying to win the championship here and now, and I think they’m definitely capable of that. They’re where we were three or four years ago,” the Golden State coach complimented Steve Kerr. “This is the hottest team in the league, no one plays as well as the Utah Jazz,” the champion coach added Frank Vogel.

Also, in an extensive article published on ESPN about Utah’s incredible run, a man who had long served as a scout in the West was anonymously quoted – drawing another imaginary line linking Utah with a past champion. The same Scout recalled Detroit’s last championship in 2003/4, when its lone All-Star was Ben Wallace, a dominant but very limited offensive defender. “They just had a lot of really good players. I thought at times that Utah needed another star, but I changed my mind about it,” the former scout was quoted as saying.

On the other side of the coin, the Lakers have suffered a fourth straight loss and have looked at a loss since losing Anthony Davis, who is expected to return at some point only after the All-Star break. “We are in a bad time but that is not what will define us later in the season and in a more distant look,” he stressed LeBron James. “We are in a bad sequence, it’s something that happens every season.” By the way, even during last season the Lakers suffered a streak of four losses – and we all know how it ended.

The calm that Baron James conveyed seemed to seep very quickly into his parquet friends. “It’s a mental thing … you need moments like that to work on your weaknesses. You can not win without having a negative streak during the season. Utah Jazz kicked us in the ass tonight, but in the playoffs it will be a completely different story,” he concluded Markif Morris.

.Source