Everybody is already writing off the Utah Jazz.

They went into San Antonio and lost both games. While losing the games, they fell behind by large amounts, their defense looked terrible, and even their runs never got them very close to winning either game.

From the look of both games, they don’t have a chance to win.

Right?

Let’s look at the recent history…

1. The Utah Jazz, who didn’t have home-court advantage to the Houston Rockets in the first round, went down 2-0 to the Rockets.

Everybody threw out the percentages of teams coming back from a 2-0 deficit in a 7 game series. If you’ve read previous articles, you know what I think about percentages. They lie.

They eventually won that series by pulling out a win in game 7.

2. The Utah Jazz have not been a very good road team.

They are a very young team, and young teams historically do not play very well on the road. The Utah Jazz team is no exception, but don’t forget that they have won in both Houston and Golden State, two very good home teams, in the playoffs.

3. The Utah Jazz have not lost at home in the playoffs.

4. The San Antonio Spurs have lost at home in the playoffs.

5. The Utah Jazz only lost 10 times at home in the regular season.

That was the third best record in the league this year.

6. The San Antonio Spurs did not win at Utah this year.

7. The Jazz had easier teams?

Hardly.

Some people point to the fact that San Antonio played very well against a good Denver Nuggets team and a good Phoenix Suns team. Those were quality wins, I’ll grant them, but Houston and Golden State’s were quality wins as well. Dallas couldn’t beat Golden State, after all. And the Jazz did well against the Nuggets and the Suns in the regular season matchups, so it’s not like San Antonio did something that the Jazz couldn’t have done. The Jazz matched up well against both teams, even more so against Golden State, but they would have pummeled the Suns in the same way, in my opinion.
 
So here we are.
 
The Jazz have to take one game in San Antonio. They messed up on the first two tries. They have two more tries to do it.

The Jazz have to win all of their home games in Utah. They have never lost in these playoffs in Utah (and they didn’t lose often in the regular season, either).

Until San Antonio wins 4 games, it isn’t over.

Believe what you want, but that’s my take!

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