In Game 1 of Utah’s first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, Donovan Mitchell could not be stopped. The third-year Jazz star rained down 57 points, the third-most in NBA playoff history behind only Michael Jordan and Elgin Baylor. Mitchell made 19 of his 33 shots from the field and six of 15 from behind the […]
High-usage bucket-getters like Donovan Mitchell are essential for most title contenders, and before the 2019-20 season began, that’s exactly what his Utah Jazz were. Their preseason over/under was lower than that of only three other teams, and after opening night, the FiveThirtyEight prediction model gave them a 5 percent chance of making the NBA Finals […]
Depending on who you ask, the NBA’s annual Christmas Day slate of games features either the league’s most elite teams or its most marketable clubs (or a healthy combination of the two). Either way, the retooled Jazz won’t be playing on the holiday, making Utah the highest-rated team in FiveThirtyEight’s 2019-20 NBA projections to be […]
This time last year, much of the basketball life had been sucked out of Utah. Or so we thought. The fans of the Jazz, who had just watched their beloved team piece together its first 50-win season and playoff-series victory since the Jerry Sloan era, likely felt let down when star wing player Gordon Hayward […]