I'm going to have to ask that you stop this streak nonsense and possibly lose like five in a row so Portland can take over the division lead permanently. Thank you! (either that or give us Jerry Sloan immediately).
lol You can have Sloan He is one of the most stubborn coaches in the league, seriously, what has he done @ Utah besides coach there with great player combos? He's never won a championship or gotten COY. He's practically on the same level of D'Antoni @ PHX
COY is a popularity contest. In no way is that representative of the best coaches. And D'Antoni is a good coach, too. Something like a dozen NBA coaches have lost their jobs in the last two years, right? "good coaches" are suddenly the elite, top five or six in the league coaches. Sloan is a great coach because his system is and always has been extremely effective. He could have CJ Miles and Ronnie Brewer or John Stockton and John Havlichek running around and the offense works just as well. Utah has been at least solid defensively as well. He regularly outcoaches Nate McMillan, IMO, and Nate is supposedly one of the "best young coaches in the league."
at atlanta, at miami, at orlando equals at the very least one loss(i'd expect two and say that losing all three is possible). jazz have 11 more road games. 10 are against winning teams. if they can get homecourt in the first round, they'll have earned it on the road and be a legit threat to make the finals.
They win @ Atlanta and @ Miami IMHO. Lose @ Orlando but a 3-1 east coast trip - especially for a team that has struggled on the road recently - is solid. Utah is heating up/getting healthy at just the right time.
I think Utah will lose @ Miami but beat Orlando. Orlando did beat Utah w/o Dwight this year though, so who knows. I don't think Utah has beat Miami in awhile, they always get beat by Wade & some buzzer beater it seems like against Miami.
I can't say I'm too disappointed or surprised the Jazz dropped that game to Atlanta. They were on the second part of a back to back and it was their third road game in four days, that's tough for any team. A better indicator for Utah about how they'll play on the road now that they're finally healthy will be the next game against Miami. They and Miami will be rested for that, and Dwyane Wade loves playing against the Jazz.
