SALT LAKE CITY — After winning three of their last four games, including two straight at Vivint Arena, the Utah Jazz are heading out on the road to see if the time they spent practicing and developing better habits in Salt Lake — thanks to a few extra days of time off in the schedule — can begin to translate into positive results in arenas other than their own. The last time they hit the road, the Jazz dropped four of five, managing their lone victory against a sub-.500 Memphis Grizzlies squad.
This time, Utah will visit the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, then travel to Charlotte to play the Hornets on Saturday before finishing up with the Miami Heat on Monday, Dec. 23. The first two games will be against mediocre teams the Jazz should be able to handle, but the final contest will be a big test versus a highly regarded Eastern Conference team with playoff aspirations of it own.
Knowing the importance of building winning habits as the season progresses, the Jazz are hoping to use the momentum from this latest three-game success run to their advantage.
”Just taking one game at a time. Focus on the game plan that we have to draw up for Atlanta. Don’t look ahead and just focus on ourselves on the defensive end,” explained forward Royce O’Neale. “Bring everybody together, just taking one possession at a time whether we’re on the offensive or defensive end with us just communicating and being aggressive on both ends of the court.”
Guard Donovan Mitchell noted that while the Jazz won each of their last three games, the team struggled at times to hold onto double-digit leads resulting in the need for late-game heroics — like in the game against Orlando — to capture the win. One key in the games ahead will be to avoid such lapses and maintain consistency on both offense and defense.
“We got to keep a lead. We can’t continue to do this because even though we played well down the stretch (against Orlando) … I wouldn’t say (we were) lucky, but we’re doing our job. We’ve got to (be able to) go from 17 to 25 to (a) 30-point lead. That’s going to be the mindset, step on these teams’ throats from the jump.”
“We play a lot of good teams and we’ve just got to go out there and just keep believing and also play together like we have and just keep moving the ball,” he added. “It really started in Minnesota and we’ve got to keep playing with that same intensity, not worry about how many we won on the road and go out there and do what we do.”
Center Rudy Gobert said the recent stretch has put the Jazz in a good position to do well on this road swing.
“Play one game at a time. We’re going to get ready for Atlanta … they’re very talented team so we’ve just got to do what we do, play as a team and defend. It puts us in a position to get stops and to win games. When we don’t, sometimes we will win,” he said. “But if we want to be the team that we want to be, we’ve got to bring that (intensity) every night and that’s how we’re going to be able to beat the best teams in the West and even in the East — by playing defense and offensively putting a lot of pressure on their defense.”