Utah Jazz: The most interesting team in the West playoff race

The Utah Jazz have gone from sitting on the outside of the Western Conference playoff race to now sitting right in the middle of it. That has helped them emerge as the most interesting team in the West playoff picture.

The Western Conference playoff race has been a wildly close race for the past month of the 2017-18 NBA regular season.

For a while, it was widely assumed the race for the final seeds in the West would come down to about six teams: the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers.

But in the past few weeks, a new team has emerged in the heart of the playoff race in the West: the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz have made the second half dash toward the postseason by putting together an impressive run that has pushed them from basically the middle of the teams on the outside of the playoff picture to right in the middle of the madness.

Even less than a month ago, Utah held position at the No. 10 spot in the Western Conference standings. As the season began to wind down, the Jazz’s position in the standings began to move up, now entering Thursday’s slate of NBA games in the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

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Earlier this week, Utah was even as high as the No. 5 seed in the standings, before bumping back down to No. 8. The Jazz have thrown themselves back into the postseason picture, making them one of the most impressive teams in the playoff race.

The reason for Utah jumping back into the picture is due to its ability to put together an impressive second half winning streak that turned the season around in more ways than one.

Entering Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, the Jazz have secured wins in nine of their last 10 games, their second lengthy winning streak in a matter of a few months. Since Jan. 22, Utah has won 21 of 25 games to burst onto the scene.

Since the All-Star Break, Utah has been one of the NBA’s best teams. Ever since then, the Jazz have tallied a record of 10-3, which trails only the Houston Rockets (13-1), Toronto Raptors (12-3), Portland Trail Blazers (12-1), Pelicans (11-4) and Thunder (10-4).

Utah also records the third-best overall plus/minus during that span, recording a +9.2, behind only the Trail Blazers (+11.3) and the Rockets (+9.4), who are two of the hottest teams in the league right now.

The Jazz are officially the most interesting team in the Western Conference playoff race, making their way into a postseason picture that was already very close and entertaining.

Next: 2017-18 Week 23 NBA Power Rankings

With the way Utah has been playing during the second half of the 2017-18 NBA season, they will be yet another team to watch as the regular season comes to a close.

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