“It’s About Executing It And Doing It Together” | Remaining Schedule Full Of Challenges | Utah Jazz

Here we go!

The second half of the season gets underway on Friday when Utah hosts Dallas in a massive showdown between two teams battling for playoff positioning. The Jazz enter Friday ranked No. 4 in the Western Conference while the Mavericks are No. 5, just 1.5 games behind — making the battle between Donovan Mitchell and Luka Doncic even more thrilling.

But that game is just the beginning of what’s expected to be the most challenging stretch of the season for the Jazz.

Over the final 24 games, Utah will play opponents with an average winning percentage of .517, which would rank as the fifth toughest schedule to close out the season.

Eleven games will be played against teams currently ranked in the top-6 of either conference. When bumping that to the top-10 of each conference — those currently in the play-in — that number jumps to 17, including 12 straight from March 14 through April 5.

“What would be frustrating, what would be disappointing, would be us not playing up to our potential,” Rudy Gobert said. “It’s up to what we know we can do as a team. … We know what we can accomplish, now it’s about executing it and doing it together.”

While some may look at that schedule and think Utah could be in for a world of trouble over the final two months of the season, the Jazz are a team ready for the challenge.

It’s difficult to argue if another team in the league has faced more adversity from its players throughout the past two months than the Jazz.

Although they were the last team in the league to have a player enter health and safety protocols, once they did, Utah began to lose players left and right.

Donovan Mitchell and Gobert missed extended time dealing with injuries while prized free-agent acquisition Rudy Gay got a late start to the season and has been sidelined with right knee soreness.

Five of Utah’s top nine rotation players have missed at least 12 games this season, including former all-star Mike Conley, arguably the most crucial piece of the Utah puzzle.

It’s difficult to overcome those issues, but the Jazz refused to panic in January amidst the struggle. There was a lot of belief in the locker room that once the team got healthy, they’d be able to turn things around — and they did, as evidenced by a six-game winning streak right before the all-star break.

“That’s the mark of a team that’s composed, and you understand you’ve got to go through adversity to get to the top,” Mitchell said. “It’s having fun with the game, even in our losses. I can’t say our losses were fun, but you look at the effort. … The energy is just different.”

The good news is that the Jazz should be in control of their own destiny if they want to stay in the top four. They face Phoenix twice and have single games against the Warriors and Grizzlies, but will take on the Mavericks three times.

When rolling and in a rhythm, the Jazz are extremely tough to beat — they have three separate win streaks of six games or more, starting the season 7-1 and 26-9. The offense is tops in the game and the defense, when active and communicating, is capable of being one of the best.

But according to head coach Quin Snyder, if Utah wants to take the next step, they must be better at closing out games. When a team is vulnerable, he wants to see his players step on their opponent’s throats and end it, not get lackadaisical and let them back in. It’s been an issue for the Jazz this season but is one that’s easily fixable.

“There is a point when we’ve had opportunities to push away and break open a game,” Snyder said. “That’s the point where we’ve got to recognize and feel the game and play those possessions with more focus and more recognition of that point in the game and how pivotal it is.”

Unfortunately, if the Jazz are to be successful closing out games, the majority of them will have to come on the road. Utah will end the season with separate five and six-game road trips.

After the home game against Dallas, the Jazz will play five games in nine days, starting in Phoenix and ending in Dallas. The good news is Utah will play Houston, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City in between, three teams that rank in the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference.

However, the final big road trip of the season is as brutal as it gets, beginning in the Big Apple and ending in Southern California’s sunny beaches.

Utah will play a back-to-back against New York and Brooklyn, the latter of which should feature Ben Simmons and Kevin Durant suiting up for the Nets. Then come games against Boston and Charlotte, two teams currently in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Utah wraps up the trip with a final showdown against Dallas and a rematch of last season’s playoffs against the Clippers.

The Jazz are currently 15-12 on the road this season but have lost their last five games away from Vivint Arena. But finally healthy, motivated and on the same page, expect Utah to make a late-season push and enter the postseason as legitimate title contenders.

“It’s about embracing the wins and the losses, and I believe in our group,” Gobert said. “I really believe that we can accomplish our goal. … Everything that we’ve been through only helped us grow and have prepared us even for that moment when it comes. I’m excited for the second part of the season, and I know that we’re going to be ready to make a push.”