Sweet music: NBA's hottest team (not named Warriors) is new fun bunch
Ladies and gentlemen, the Utah Jazz are the hottest team in the land not named the Golden State Warriors. They extended their season-best win streak to seven games Tuesday night with a 121-119 overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
When so many young teams find ways to lose, these young Jazz, who trailed by 15 points in the first half and by nine after three quarters, are finding ways to win. Rodney Hood hit a remarkable, high-arching 3-pointer over Chandler Parsons with 1.4 seconds to play in regulation to force overtime, and Gordon Hayward, who was having a forgettable night shooting until it really counted, dropped the game-winning, step-back jumper over Dallas center Zaza Pachulia.
And don't look now, but the Jazz (26-25), who tied their longest win streak since 2010, have fewer losses than both the Mavericks (29-26) and the Houston Rockets (27-27), who came close to cooling off Golden State Tuesday, but left Oracle Arena just as as all other comers have this season. Houston's loss allowed Utah to pass the Rockets for seventh place in the West, and with a final pre-All-Star break game at New Orleans on Wednesday, the Jazz can pad that lead, and creep even closer to sixth-place Dallas.
In just his second season, coach Quin Snyder has put a crew of youngsters including Trey Burke, Derrick Favors, Gordon Hawyard, Rudy Gobert and Rodney Hood on the same page. The Jazz haven't been to the playoffs since the lockout-shortened season of 2011-2012 when it finished 36-30 under Tyrone Corbin and lost in the first round.
Salt Lake City will be rocking with visions of the postseason once again when the Jazz finally return home on Feb. 19 (following a road game at Washington on Feb. 18 after the long All-Star break).
Playoffs? As for the Jazz players, they're just trying to enjoy the success as it comes. As Hood told reporters after beating Dallas: "We’re taking it game by game. We haven’t really been talking about the playoffs. If we make it, it would be amazing with us being such a young team. (Our goal) is to just game by game to get better, and if we do that we’ll be where we want to be by the spring."
For the first time in a long time, the Jazz are playing sweet, sweet music that's catching everybody's attention.
