The Utah Jazz crushed the decent Wizards, the pesky Timberwolves, and the defending champion San Antonio Spurs at Energy Solutions Arena and turned around and beat the best team in the Western Conference, the New Orleans Hornets, on their home floor.
Like always, Deron Williams prevented Chris Paul from getting good numbers.
You’ve got to wonder if the Utah Jazz have what it takes to win it all.
Let’s take a look at some interesting numbers…
We all know that the Utah Jazz made it to the Western Conference Finals last year. That certainly gives Deron Williams more experience in the playoffs than the point guard of the team leading the Western Conference (Chris Paul) or of the team leading the Eastern Conference (Rajon Rondo).
At home, the Utah Jazz are practically unbeatable with a record of 35-4 (90%).
On the road they are not nearly so good, with only a record of 17-22 (43%).
Even if the Jazz never have homecourt advantage during the playoffs, but they win 9 of every 10 home games and 3 out of 7 road games they would win the NBA Championship.
Even if you made the math simpler and the Jazz won every home game and only 1 one of the four road games, they would still win the NBA Championship.
And lest you think that these wins come against the cupcake teams, Utah is 25-10 against teams over .500. That’s over 71% for those who are counting.
Detroit is at 69%.
Boston is only at 67%.
San Antonio, believe it or not, is below less than 50% against the top teams in the league. I thought that San Antonio and the Lakers would be the Jazz’s biggest challenges in the playoffs, but it appears that you may just be able to drop San Antonio from the list.
Houston, a likely first round matchup, had a huge win streak during the season, but only comes in at 55%.