Utah Jazz faces an agonizing February schedule, with a three-game trip the next

Nothing too scary, right?

Well, not before I started mentioning the real teams involved: the Lakers coming to visit Vivint Arena, two games in Los Angeles against the Clippers, candidates for the Eastern Conference like the 76ers, Bucks and Celtics.

Even many of the games against supposedly bad teams are probably not so easy – home and away games against Charlotte Hornets 10-11, plus two against a Miami Heat team that broke out earlier this season, but who had enough talent to do that. for the NBA finals last year.

Yes, February will test these Jazz and it should reveal whether they really are candidates or not. Not that many of them admit to approaching it that way. The natural inclination is to profess disdain for looking ahead, for considering what it may be, for focusing on anything other than the here and now: “I don’t think we are seeing these struggles in the future and how difficult the schedule is” , said coach Quin Snyder on Tuesday.

Bojan Bogdanovic, however, is proof that such a feeling is not universally true.

The Croatian sniper, instead, gave an enthusiastic, bring-and-let’s-see-what-we-got response when asked about what’s to come.

“I think it is good for us to face all these great teams now in February, because we are in great shape. We are playing good basketball, we are defending well, so I think it is the right time for us to play all of them, ”he said after the victory over the Pistons. “It’s a difficult schedule – we have a lot of great teams from the East coming here and we have this trip ahead of us. But, as I said, we are in great shape and it is a good time to play them all. “

Jazz will begin, as he mentioned, with a three-game trip to Atlanta, Charlotte and Indiana, respectively.

The Hornets, which Jazz will face on Friday, are fourth in the league in forcing twists and third in turning transactions into points. They are also one of the best passing teams in the NBA, ranking at the top or near the top is the percentage of assists, the proportion of assists and the proportion of assists for turnover. They are also, however, one of the most susceptible to allow for rapid breaking points. Former Jazz striker Gordon Hayward is having a resurgence season for the Hornets, posting Utah-era averages of 22.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists, while pitching 50.3% of the field and 43.0% outside the arc.

Sunday’s opponent, Indiana, is 12-9 at the moment, and is moved by an inside-out attack that has the most points in the painting per game (54.9), and the third highest percentage of points scored in painting (48.1%). They Pacers are incredibly efficient in counting turnovers. In defense, thanks to Myles Turner’s incredible kick block, they lead the league in that category. Domantas Sabonis is heading for another All-Star season, averaging 21.1 points, 12.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists, while shooting 55.9% overall and 35.2% deep.

It is a trip with a trio of opponents who, although they are not particularly imposing, should also not be considered lightly, a triumvirate that will serve as an effective kick-off for the upcoming testing month.

Snyder, of course, would not agree to look at anything in the future, insisting: “The best thing we can do is to continue to try to improve, whatever the circumstances.

“… I don’t know how deep you are aware of it,” added Snyder. “It’s like when you go on the road – you know you have three, four or five[-game]- long drive, there is definitely an awareness of this, but if you look too far ahead, you will neglect certain games and certain situations. It is no different. One of the things that our team has really done a good job of is staying present. “

Mike Conley, about whom Donovan Mitchell said on Tuesday that he played relentlessly because he was one of the “old men” on the team, naturally took the same kind of measured approach from his coach.

The ideal, he insisted, is to stay narrow and focus only on themselves.

“What has helped our success so far is that we just faced it game by game,” said Conley. “We are not really concerned with the schedule or how strong or weak or who our opponent is the next night, on two backs – we are just entering that night trying to play our basketball and trying to do what we do best. And if it is enough, we will win – we will win these games against the good teams. As long as we go out and execute in the way we know we can – and, obviously, we want to play well, we want to play well against good teams – but just winning one by one is the way to go ”.