The Playoffs Begin on Tuesday

With 29 games left this year, the Jazz need to get into Playoffs mode starting tomorrow. Every game against a western conference team is going to end up being worth 2 wins or 2 losses beause they are all grouped so close together. A loss to a team like New Orleans or Houston could really hurt our chances. Starting tomorrow we have 7 games at home against other playoff quality teams in the west and 2 against quality east teams, but one of those teams is Detroit and we own them so that almost doesn't count as a tough game. So, we have 16 total home games left and 9 are against decent competition, given the dominance that the Jazz have exhibited at home this year I say anything less than 14 - 2 the rest of the way is a failure. 14 home wins puts our win total at 48. I don't think that would be enough to win the division or get into the playoffs this year, it would be close, but not quite enough. That means we are going to have to get some more wins away from the ESA.

Moving onto the road, we have 13 total games left and 5 of those are against the playoff quality teams from the west and only 1 against playoff quality from the east. Lets say we go 2-4 against the tough teams and 4-3 against the others. We should go 6-1 against the others, but we do have that December history lesson to remember. That gives us a 6-7 record in road games and total record of 54 - 28. That should win the division pretty handily, but may not get us home court advantage in the first round and right now that would be against San Antonio, so game over for the Jazz if that happens.

Hopefully for this is what we will see happen from here on out.
- Phoenix is going to struggle for the next 10 games learning how to play with Shaq and go 5-5 bringing them down in the standing a bit.
- New Orleans is going to wilt uner the preasure and none of the fragile players have been hurt yet so look for Paul and Peja to miss a combined 15 games. They will end up as the 6th seed.
- The Lakers are one hard foul on that pinky of Kobe from becoming a .500 team the rest of the way in, I am rooting for Raja Bell on the 20th or Ron Artest on March 4th to "Sweep the Leg" if you will.
- San Antonio is going to turn it on and finish with the best record, they always do at this time of year.
- Dallas is going to go backwards with Kidd, he really is not playing that well this year. 36% shooting percentage is Jason Shart territory plus his turnovers are way up.
- Houston, Denver and Golden State don't matter so we will not discuss any of them. Now this is a big if, but IF all of these things happen the Jazz could end up with the 2nd seed. With home court advantage in the first two rounds you could pencil them into the finals again and then we would get a chance to topple our nemesis for a trip to the finals. If the Jazz are ever going to win a championship now is the time with the East being so bad.