Utah Jazz: 3 keys to securing a playoff spot

As the 2018-19 regular season enters the home stretch, let’s take a look at three keys to the Utah Jazz making their way back to the postseason in April.

It’s officially time to think about the playoff picture for teams in the NBA. The Utah Jazz just happen to once again be in the middle of it all in the Western Conference.

Entering Tuesday, the Jazz currently hold a record of 33-26 overall — including tallying a record of 13-5 in the second half of the season — and sit as the No. 6 seed in the West, hanging on to one of the final playoff spots for the time being.

The Western Conference race has once again returned to being jam-packed in the middle of the standings like it was earlier in the season and at the tail end of last year as well, with about a half of a dozen teams fighting for the postseason.

Utah is just 1.5 games back from the Houston Rockets and the No. 5 seed, while just 3.5 games back from the Portland Trail Blazers and making the jump all the way up to as high as the No. 4 seed in the West.

On the other side of things, the Jazz are also just a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers and the No. 7 seed, 1.5 games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs and the No. 8 seed and are just 4.5 games ahead of falling out of the postseason picture and moving down to as low as the No. 11 seed in the conference.

As the entire NBA enters crunch time with a final 25 or fewer games remaining on every team’s regular season schedules and as talk surrounding the playoff picture begins to heat up, let’s take a look at what are three keys for the Jazz holding onto a spot in the postseason and what it will take for them to get there.