Utah Jazz are surprise leaders in the NBA

Donovan Mitchell (Google Images)

Basketball fans always hear how great the Los Angeles Lakers are with LeBron James, and Anthony Davis leading the way. The Brooklyn Nets are supposed to be great with their big three of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. Heading into the year, expectations were also high in Miami, as they went to the NBA Finals a year ago; in Dallas, with Luka Doncic as an emerging star; in Milwaukee, with Giannis Antetokounmpo extremely rich; in Philadelphia, with Doc Rivers now guiding Joel Embiid; in Boston, where Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are progressing at a high rate; and Los Angeles’s other team where they have star, Kawhi Leonard, who has already won with San Antonio and Toronto. But none of the aforementioned teams have the best record in the NBA.

That record belongs to the Utah Jazz. That’s no misprint. You have to go to the Rocky Mountains to find not the only the NBA’s best team, but hottest team too.

The Jazz superstars are finally playing in sync. Donovan Mitchell is averaging 23.4 points per game, while Rudy Gobert is averaging 14.2 rebounds per game, the third-most in the NBA.

Utah currently has six players averaging double digits in points. In addition to Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson is averaging 17.9 points per game, Mike Conley has 16.6 points per game, Gobert has 13.4 points per game, Bojan Bogdanovic has 12.9 points per game, and Australia’s own Joe Ingles has 10.9 points per game.

The fact that the Jazz is spreading their offense around is leading to victories. At 14-4, Utah has a half-game lead on the Clippers for the best record in the NBA. The Jazz are winners of 10 straight games. They have not lost since losing to the New York Knicks 112-100 on January 6. Since then they have beaten the Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans twice, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks.

The biggest question for the Jazz is a simple one. Are Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert genuinely able to co-exist? It is almost a year ago that Gobert made not only sports headlines, but news headlines when he was the first athlete to test positive for coronavirus. Mitchell’s positive test soon followed, and his relationship with Gobert strained. When Jazz ownership agreed to sign Gobert long-term, they basically hypothetically said to Mitchell, ‘we need Gobert to win a championship. Now is the time to work out your differences.’ So far Mitchell and Gobert are doing their talking on the court, and it is generating victories. Time will tell if Utah’s regular season success will continue into the postseason.

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