On January 11, 2024, Beijing time, the Utah Jazz defeated the Denver Nuggets in the third place in the West at home, and Malone brought the essence of team basketball to the extreme, with 14 players scoring in the game, but still unable to reverse the suppressed situation, the Nuggets did not get any benefit in the whole game, and were beaten by the opponent throughout the whole game, and they were not relieved until the moment the substitute players came on the court, and it was this operation that completely nailed the team to the pillar of shame, and the defending champions lost to the team with a winning rate of less than 5% for the first time, ending their previous 17-game winning streak。 The Utah Jazz won three straight victories and successfully trampled the Golden State Warriors under their feet with a 19-20 record, only one win away from the Phoenix Suns in 8th place in the West.
In the past 11 games, the Jazz have a 9-2 record, of which the Spurs, Pistons and other league weakers have contributed 3 wins, which is inevitably mixed with some water, but the remaining games directly hammer their gold content. In addition to the past three consecutive wins over the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets, the Raptors, Heat and Mavericks have also been unable to escape the curse of losing, and the team's minority shareholder Dwyane Wade has posted a message to celebrate, inspiring his team to achieve better results. Back to a month ago, when the team's situation was very difficult, and the Moxiong and Spurs formed a new fish belly team, the record is difficult to say, at this critical moment of survival, Jazz general manager Angie took advantage of the opening of the trade day, made it clear that except for Markkanen, the rest of the players can be traded, and for a time many team general managers have called.
Players such as Horton-Tucker, Olynyk, Sexton, Kyles and Clarkson are the main contenders and are expected to be the main rotations in multiple championship contenders, but substantial trades don't happen so quickly. As of now, only the New York Knicks can really act on the trade market, and other teams are still in a wait-and-see state, so they can't make a move if they don't have to, and if they want to eat a big melon, they may have to wait for the last minute of the deadline. Perhaps considering the value of the players, many role players have put their goals in the game, and it is possible that a good performance in a game will get the opportunity to compete for the championship, which is not a meaningful thing.
The mediocre team has a number of championship favorites under the horse, I have to admire the strength of head coach Wilhardy, as a Spurs from the Spurs, he won the true biography of Popovich and Udoka, the young rookie coach took the concept of team basketball to the extreme, excellent transfer of the ball, protection in the restricted area and the use of three-point shots in tactics are more perfect, creating a team with an average of 6 players scoring in double figures per game, considering that they will face the Raptors, Lakers, Teams such as the Pacers and Warriors may still have the strength to fight, and this good momentum continues.
The reborn Jazz may be heading for full speed in the play-offs, but this kind of huge pressure is undoubtedly the biggest challenge for the Los Angeles Lakers. The two armies are fighting, the Lakers' biggest advantage is that they have superstars, the appearance of Zhan Mei will make a lot of things simple, but the team's biggest drawback is that there is only Zhan Mei, and the rest of the role players are difficult to be reused in Ham's tactical system, in addition, the instability of the shooting leads to the team's inability to open up space in the restricted area, and there is still more than half of the game before the end of the season, and every game must rely on the strength of the stars, then the Lakers will not be able to enter the play-offs, let alone the playoffs, it seems that the biggest threat of the Grizzlies is missing, but the potential threat of the Jazz cannot be estimated, and perhaps the Lakers will face the embarrassing situation of missing the playoffs。