Remaining Utah Jazz Games That Could Decide Tank Race

A notable game for the Jazz's tanking efforts, as this one will mark a matchup between the West's bottom-two teams in the conference, and if executed correctly, could give Utah a nice spark for their lottery odds with less than one month to go in the season.

The last two times the Jazz have faced off against the Kings, it's resulted in a double-digit victory in favor of Utah. Perhaps the Jazz being without all five members of their usual starting five on the road could change that result on Sunday.

March 19: vs. Milwaukee Bucks

Despite Giannis Antetokounmpo's return, the Bucks have been quite abysmal in the last couple of weeks of the season, which has made their Play-In hopes look bleaker and bleaker as time goes on. Since March 1st, Milwaukee is 1-6 with five of those losses by 10 points or more, and now sits over five games back for the East's 10th seed.

Lucky for the Jazz, that one win against the Bucks' past two weeks on the schedule just so happened to come against Utah by a margin of 14 points––meaning there's a good chance the same result could happen again at the Delta Center to give Milwaukee a 2-0 season series sweep.

March 21st: vs. Philadelphia 76ers

This one sets up to be an sneaky game to keep an eye on for the Jazz's tank race, as Philadelphia is suffering from multiple key absences in their lineup from what's guided forward for most of the season. Tyrese Maxey is out with a hand injury, the same for Joel Embiid with an oblique injury, and Paul George is still out with a suspension.

At the Delta Center, the Jazz could certainly make this one more competitive than you'd think. And therefore, sets up to be one of the few potential wins remaining on Utah's schedule.

March 25th: vs. Washington Wizards

Circle this game on your calendar, as there might not be a more pivotal game left for the Jazz's tanking ambitions than their second matchup of the year against Washington, currently sitting with the third-best odds in the lottery with 16 wins.

Adding to the Wizards' win total won't guarantee the Jazz to shift up the board without some outside help. But if Utah wants to move higher than the fifth-best odds before May rolls around, any wins against Washington or the Brooklyn Nets— the two teams that sit between the Jazz and top-three odds—help tremendously.

Utah already split their season series against the Nets 1-1. Considering the Jazz got the best of the Wizards in their last meeting at the beginning of March, a loss here to split this series 1-1 would be another step in the right (or technically, wrong) direction.

April 10th: vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Here's another game to mark on the calendar for two reasons: for one, it'll be Taylor Hendricks and Walter Clayton's first time back in Salt Lake City since their trade to the Grizzlies last month.

Another reason this game's important: in terms of the Jazz's lottery odds, Memphis doesn't sit not too far behind Utah in the league standings. The Grizzlies have 23 wins, while the Jazz have 20.

Depending on how these two teams' records shake out in the month ahead, this game could have high implications for where each see their odds finalize, being one of the final games of the regular season between two bona fide lottery teams.