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SALT LAKE CITY — ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy couldn’t quite wrap his head around what was happening. Not at the game he was calling — the Los Angeles Clippers' overtime win against the Utah Jazz — but in the game that the ESPN broadcast was showing the score of the in the upper corner.
Sacramento was up big on Portland. And with the lineup the Trail Blazers ran out there for the regular season finale, that wasn’t a surprise. Portland wanted to lose to set up a first-round matchup with the Jazz. And that just didn’t seem very smart to Van Gundy.
“For the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone would try to get to Utah,” he said.
And maybe the Blazers heard him — because after being down by as much 28 points to the Kings — Portland came all the way back to win. And that, coupled with Denver’s double-digit comeback in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, sealed Utah’s playoff fate.
The Jazz will be playing the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs beginning this weekend. Utah will be the No. 5 seed with the Rockets the No. 4.
"Winning 50 games, being in the playoffs is something that I think we respect," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "We are anxious to have an opportunity to do more."
And that opportunity to will begin on Sunday night in Houston with Game 1.
The full schedule is as follows:
Game 1: @ Houston, Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Game 2: @ Houston, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Game 3: @ Utah, April 20, 8:30 p.m.
Game 4: @ Utah, April 22, 8:30 p.m.
Game 5: @ Houston, April 24, TBD
Game 6: @ Utah, April 26, TBD
Game 7: @ Houston, April 28, TBD
It certainly appeared that the basketball gods wanted a Houston Rockets vs. Utah Jazz first-round series. That’s the only way to explain what happened on Wednesday night — or Tuesday really.
The Blazers sat all their regulars and got down by 28 points in the second quarter against the Kings. Things looked set. And then they weren’t. Portland stormed back to get the win. And that was followed by Denver, who were down by 11 points in the fourth quarter, rallying to steal a victory in Minnesota.
And then you throw in the fact that the Houston-Utah matchup was helped set up by a buzzer-beater by Portland and a near buzzer-beater by Houston on Tuesday and, well, it just feels a little bit like fate.
And while a number of Jazz fans are a little disappointed to have to play the team that eliminated Utah out of the playoffs in just five games last year, the team is actually looking forward to it.
"We are excited," Georges Niang said. "We are even more excited cause they knocked us out in the playoffs last year. It’s going to be a fun series for sure."
Houston has the best record in the league since the All-Star break and, since Chris Paul has returned from an injury, have looked like the team that took the Golden State Warriors to seven games last year in the Western Conference Finals.
That makes for a brutal matchup. But one Utah thinks it's ready for.
"We know how good they are," Snyder said. "They played better than anybody in the league the second half of the season and got through some injuries. They are a terrific team. We know how difficult the series will be and we have to prepare and compete and that’s what we’ll do."
And when asked how he'll prepare, Snyder quipped back: "We are going to try and win, how's that?"
