I have wanted to do a break down of the Jazz's losses this year for a few days now and after going through it more carefully all I can say is ugh.  The Jazz have some really bad losses, in fact you might want to take a prozac, wait 30 minutes and then come back to reading.

The Jazz are currently sitting at 21-15 and just percentage points behind the Suns for the 8th spot in the playoffs and only 3.5 games out of the #2 seed.  Here is the depressing part, The Jazz should be a solid number 2 seed even with all of the injury troubles.  Here is a list of the teams losses, going from an expected loss to a WTF loss.

Expected Losses:  There are certain games that you see on the schedule and just know that the Jazz are going to lose and its OK.

@ Boston
@ Cleveland
@ San Antonio
@ Lakers

Acceptible Losses:  These are games that I had hope for us winning and thought we would get it done, but when they lose its OK.

@ Phoenix
@ Houston

Should Have Won, But Gave it Away Losses:  These are games that the Jazz played well for awhile and then ultimately gave them away.

Vs. Chicago
@ Milwaukee
@ Chicago
Vs. Miami

WTF Losses:  No further description needed.  These are the bottom feeders of the league that a chamionship caliber team should never lose to.  I included Orlando here because J-Slo had a senior moment in the second half of that game after dominating them in the first.

@ Knicks
@ Wizards
@ Bobcats
Vs. New Jersey
Vs. Orlando

In my estimationThe Jazz should have won at least 2 of the 4 gave it away games and 4 of the 5 WTF losses, that would put their record at 27 - 9.  We would be 2 games ahead of San Antonio for 2nd and only 2.5 game behind LA for the #1 seed.  I really hope that this is more a product of the injuries than a reality of what this team is.  Combine the really bad losses with the increasingly alarming problem of having horrible 1st quarters and I am really worried.  I dont think that the Jazz really have a win in a game that was an expected loss so I think that the projection is fairly accurate. 

Speaking of the injury situation - I dont know of any other team has lost as many games to injury, certainly I dont think anyone has had their top 4 players miss as many games as the Jazz.  And here is the silver lining in all of this, even with the injuries/drama (I am talking to you Boozer) they are still right there capable of making a strong push and getting into that 2 or 3 seed.  The next 5 games are going to be crucial for this team with home games against good competion in Detroit and Indy and then 3 very winable games on the road against OKC, Memphis and Dallas.  If the Jazz want to get back into this race, now is a good time to do it.  I know its unreasonable to expect perfection, but I think that the Jazz need to go 5-0 if they want home court advantage in the playoffs.  The teams directly ahead of us play each other a lot over the next 5 games so some teams are going be coming back to the Jazz making this stretch even more important as there is a good chance to shoot up in the standings.

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