Ok, first couple of games down, so far so good. We pull out the win in Seattle, and Utah is getting creamed against the Warriors, meaning we finish this night up by .5 . Everything is going according to plan..
This is very very good. Plus now they have a tough Denver game ahead of them and a 4 game skid behind them.
If the Clippers can win their games against New Orleans, Portland and the Lakers, and New Orleans loses to the Clippers and Denver... Then they will be mathematically out of it by the time they play us and it will have zero playoff implications for them, so they may rest some injuries and wont be nearly as motivated.
playing spoiler is not nearly the motivation that going to the playoffs is, and if they are just mathmatically out of it the day before they will be in a low state.
Shameless Bump. If we lost tonight against the Suns, you can bet the Jazz will beat Portland. That would mean we would be going into essentially a last-game tie-breaker on the road against our playoff opponent, will all the momentum on their side. I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that tonight's game is the biggest of the year, at least in regards to how big a benefit a win would be, while at the same time how big a detriment a loss would be too. That equals "extremely big game" to me. Dallas just locked the Spurs into the 3-hole last night, so the Suns no longer have any real incentive to go all-out tonight. Let's go ahead and make the boldest possible prediction here: We beat the Suns tonight (let's face it, if we can't beat the nothing-to-play-for Suns in a make-or-break game, at home, of paramount importance, with seeding and HCA implications, then we have no business even thinking about being in the same playoffs with the likes of the Suns and the Mavericks), and Utah is deflated by the news enough that they lost at home to Portland, leaving us up 3 after tonight. Then we go into Utah and beat them there, and we finish the reg season 4 games up on Utah. Wouldn't THAT be sweet?
