NBA Game of the Week: Nets vs. Jazz
The Brooklyn Nets will head west to Utah to play an up and down Jazz team, in a Friday night battle.
The Nets have undoubtedly found their stride recently. They are a different team right now compared to how they looked early in the season. They started slow and have turned on the mid season burners to help them win some games.
Brooklyn has been clicking on all cylinders and has found ways to win without relying on only its stars, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, to do all the work for them. With that being said, Durant and Irving are some of the best weapons to have on a team and together they are a top-three duo in the NBA.
The Nets are trying to prove themselves as a dangerous competitor in the East. The Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks have been the two teams to beat in the East, but the Nets are trying to make their case as a dominant team to put themself in that category of “serious contenders.”
In December, the Nets only lost one game (to the first place Celtics). This means that as a team, the Nets figured something out and have been able to climb the ladder in the standings to bring them back up with the beasts of the East.
The Jazz on the other hand are losing it. They had such low expectations from everyone around the league because their two big name players Donavan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert found new homes in Cleveland and in Minnesota, and when a team loses their best two players, it’s safe to say trending downwards is in their future.
However, the Jazz were the biggest surprise team to begin the NBA season. With the addition of Lauri Markkanen, the Jazz started the season 10-3. These games were shocking, simply put.
No one expected the Jazz to win much more than 10 games the entire season and 13 games in, they did just that. However, their luck has been fizzling out slowly but surely. Since being 10-3 to start the season, the Jazz find themselves sitting at 24-24, but the losses have been coming in fast recently.
Even with guys playing out of their minds like Markkanen averaging 24.8 points and 8.6 rebounds and Jordan Clarkson averaging 21 points per game, the Jazz are still just missing some star power to compete with teams that have more talented rosters.
The Nets have been able to take out weaker teams with ease and they will look to put on a show versus the Jazz. Because Brooklyn has been playing with momentum and Utah is losing its, the Nets will make a statement against the Jazz in what could be in blowout fashion.
Max Savitt is a second-year student majoring in journalism. To contact him, email mrs6929@psu.edu.
