Jazz Path to In-Season Tournament Elite Eight Explained
Despite losing to the Phoenix Suns in the in-season tournament on Friday night, the Utah Jazz are still in the conversation of advancing to the next round. Utah is one game behind the Los Angeles Lakers in Group A with a 2-1 record and .5 a game ahead of the Suns.
If Utah does advance to the next round, they’ll need to beat the Lakers on Tuesday night and be on the right side of the tiebreakers that have been put in place.
First, let’s take a look at the tiebreakers.
- Head-to-head record in the group stage
- Point differential in the group stage
- Total points in the group stage
- Regular season record from the 2022-23 season
The cleanest path would be the Jazz beating the Lakers while the Suns losing one of their two remaining games with the Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers. In this scenario, the Jazz get the nod by winning the tiebreaker versus the Lakers because of their head-to-head win.
If Phoenix beats Portland and Memphis, Utah will need to beat the Lakers by at least 12 points and hope the Suns games are relatively close. Where it stands today, the Suns have a net 0 in point differential while the Jazz are at +6.3.
If Utah beats the Lakers but loses to the Suns in the tiebreaker, then there’s still a chance of advancing as a wild card. The two wild card winners will advance with the best won-loss record and then defer to a point differential.
In this case, Utah will need to beat the Lakers and advance by having a larger point differential than all of the teams that didn't win their group but only have one loss.
The last game in group play for the Jazz will be a nationally televised game against the Lakers on TNT on Tuesday night. The tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. MST.
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