Utah Jazz Clinch Berth To NBA Playoffs For 29th Time In Franchise History
Jun 26, 2020, 11:19 AM | Updated: Jun 27, 2020, 12:05 am
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz clinched a berth to the NBA postseason for the 29th time in franchise history as the NBA and National Basketball Players Association announced a finalized plan to restart the 2019-20 season.
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On Friday, June 26, the two parties finalized an agreement to restart the season beginning on July 30 in Orlando, Florida.
Part of the league’s restart plan is for 22 eligible teams to play eight more regular season “seeding games” prior to the start of the NBA Playoffs.
When the 2019-20 NBA season was paused on March 11, the Jazz owned a record of 41-23.
April 27, 2018: @utahjazz rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 38 points in Game 6 against the Thunder in a series clinching, 96-91 victory. It's one of the greatest playoff performances in franchise history. #KSLSportsArchive #takenote #NBA pic.twitter.com/kKZeXxgfUe
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) April 28, 2020
Utah has the fourth-best in the Western Conference and is currently 8.5 games behind the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers.
The Jazz are also 9.5 games ahead of the No. 8 seed Memphis Grizzlies. With only eight regulars season games remaining, Utah automatically clinched a berth to the postseason when the restart plan was accepted.
This is the fourth consecutive season in which the Jazz have qualified for the Playoffs. It’s the first time the franchise has made the postseason since they did so from the 2006-07 season until the 2009-10 season.
April 19, 2010: Deron Williams scores 33 points and dishes out 14 assists leading the @utahjazz to a stunning upset in Game 2 of their 2010 #NBA playoff series against the Nuggets. Kyrylo Fesenko filled in nicely for an injured Mehmet Okur. #KSLSportsArchive #takenote pic.twitter.com/BUN77aKLQe
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) April 21, 2020
During the remaining regular-season games, the Jazz will play for seeding purposes.
If the NBA standings remained the same, the Jazz would have home-court advantage in the first round and would play the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Jazz defeated the Thunder 4-2 in the first round of the 2018 postseason.
Each of the past three seasons, Utah entered the NBA Playoffs as the No. 5 seed in the West.
*—an important development#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/TdGgkrNTDA
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) March 29, 2019
In 2019, the Jazz faced the No. 4 seed Houston Rockets in the first round.
Houston beat Utah 4-1 and advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals.
A year ago yesterday the @utahjazz beat the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of the Playoffs at #VivintArena!
We miss this.#TBT pic.twitter.com/eOKaU1GbDg
— Vivint Arena (@vivintarena) April 23, 2020
Regardless of who the Jazz play, the team will be without its second-leading scorer in Bojan Bogdanovic.
The Jazz forward underwent season-ending surgery on his right wrist in May. Bogdanovic was averaging 20.2 points per contest.
