More Than Meets the Eye - Utah Jazz Edition

Donovan Mitchell is your 2018 slam dunk champion! And on a current eleven game win streak, the Utah Jazz and their fans have cause to be excited!! This particular win streak, however, has three big reasons to give Jazz fans even more optimism about this team.

More road wins than home.

The Jazz have historically struggled on the road. They have always played much better at home. This win streak, however, has included more road wins (7) than home wins (4). Including a stretch where Utah had to play six road teams in a seven game stretch!

The Jazz are soundly beating the best the NBA has to offer.

During this winning streak, the Jazz beat the East's best record Toronto Raptors in Toronto. A few days later they destroyed the best team, the Golden State Warriors, by 30 points. They then soundly beat the Pelicans and the Blazers, two teams currently ahead of the Jazz in the standings, both on the road winning by 24 points and 19 points respectively. And then, perhaps the most impressive for Utah, the Jazz beat the team that has always given them the most trouble; the San Antonio Spurs... twice! Once at home and once in San Antonio. And it's not just two normal games - both games were the second game on a back-to-back for the Jazz, which usually teams will lose because of fatigue.

The Jazz are not just "clicking."

This winning streak did not come out of no-where. It isn't like the Jazz are just "hot." This is the first time the Jazz's two best players are playing together this season. Of course at the very beginning of the season, Rudy Gobert and rookie Donovan Mitchell were playing together - but Donovan Mitchell wasn't Donovan Mitchell yet. He was just getting started. Then just twelve games into the season, Rudy Gobert went down with an injury. He missed twenty-six of the next thirty-two games. He came back healthy on January 19th and the win streak started on January 24th. It's no coincidence that this win streak started just three games after Rudy came back from injury. This is first time we see Donovan Mitchell and healthy Rudy Gobert really playing together. And it's amazing.

So be optimistic Jazz fans! I expect the Jazz to continue to win games, play well against any team in the NBA, climb up the standings and make the playoffs this year. With Utah winning games on the road, beating the best teams, and with budding superstar Donovan Mitchell and a healthy Rudy Gobert - the Jazz could be the team nobody wants to have to play against in the playoffs.