Utah Jazz inch closer to franchise record with 10th consecutive win

Scott Rafferty

Utah Jazz inch closer to franchise record with 10th consecutive win image

On Wednesday, the Utah Jazz extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 118-107 win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Joe Ingles led the Jazz in scoring with 27 points on a scorching 6-for-8 shooting from 3-point range. Rudy Gobert also played well in the win, finishing with a 22-point, 18-rebound double-double, while Donovan Mitchell powered through a rough shooting night to hold the Nets off in the fourth quarter with 14 points down the stretch. 

According to Basketball Reference, this is now the 11th time in franchise history that the Jazz have gone on a double digit winning streak. The longest winning streak in franchise history is 15, which was done not once but twice in the 1996-97 season.

That begs the question: What are the odds that these Jazz break that record?

Longest winning streaks in Jazz history
Streak First Last
15 1996-11-13 1996-12-10
15 1997-03-12 1997-04-11
14 1995-01-07 1995-02-01
12 2009-02-11 2009-03-10
11 1998-02-26 1998-03-16
11 1999-04-01 1999-04-18
11 2018-01-24 2018-02-14
10 1978-01-14 1978-02-01
10 1994-02-19 1994-03-08
10 2008-01-18 2008-02-06
10 2019-12-26 2020-01-14

They'll have a shot at making history, but it won't be easy.

The Jazz have one more game remaining on this road trip, a matchup with a New Orleans Pelicans team that has won seven of their last 10 games. The Jazz will then return to Utah for a two-game homestand where they'll host the Sacramento Kings, followed by the Indiana Pacers.

If the Jazz win those three games, it will put them at 13 consecutive wins. It's then where things get interesting.

Jazz's rise in the standings during 10-game streak:

 

Following the Pacers game, the Jazz hit the road again to take on the Golden State Warriors, who have the worst record in the Western Conference this season. They will then return home for another two-game homestand, this time against the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets, two of the best teams in the Western Conference.

A win against the Mavericks would tie the franchise record, whereas a win against the Rockets would break it.

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Wins against the Mavericks and Rockets will obviously be hard to come by — assuming, of course, they even get through the Pelicans, Kings, Pacers and Warriors, which won't be a walk in the park — but they are actually favoured to win both of those games based on FiveThirtyEight's played-based forecasting model. In fact, there's only one game that the Jazz aren't favoured to win over the next couple of weeks.

That game? Friday's meeting with the Pelicans, believe it or not.

FiveThirtyEight's other forecasting model, for what it's worth, favours the Jazz in that Pelicans game.

It'll be interesting to see which model turns out to be correct and whether or not that is indeed the biggest roadblock between the Jazz falling short and making franchise history.

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Scott Rafferty

Scott Rafferty Photo

 

Scott Rafferty is an experienced NBA journalist who first started writing for The Sporting News in 2017. There are few things he appreciates more than a Nikola Jokic no-look pass, Klay Thompson heat check or Giannis Antetokounmpo eurostep. He's a member of the NBA Global team.