Utah Jazz Odds to Win the 2008 NBA Finals

The Utah Jazz made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2007, before losing to eventual champion San Antonio, and they look to be an even more dominant force in 2008 with the best home record in the league. Does Utah have what it takes to get back to the NBA Finals and even win it all this time around? Jimmy Boyd takes a look at the 2008 Utah Jazz odds to win the NBA Finals and discusses their chances. 

Why they’ll win it all:

The Utah Jazz are a great sleeper pick to win the NBA Finals this season as they were right on the brink of advancing to the Finals a year ago. Utah is flat out dominant at home with a 37-4 record this season. That in itself gives the Jazz an excellent chance as no team will be favored over Utah while playing in Salt Lake City this postseason. Utah is a very versatile team which can play uptempo and slow down ball, and they have one of the best point guards in the league in Deron Williams to control that tempo. While Chris Paul has been getting all the attention this season, Williams has owned him in head to head action. Carlos Boozer was sensational in the playoffs last season and he gives the Jazz an inside presence which teams must double team. Mehmet Okur always poses matchup problems with his ability to step away from the basket to shoot the three at 7-feet tall, and Andrei Kirilenko is one of the best defensive players in basketball. He is also in a much better state of mind than he was entering last season’s playoffs. Matt Harpring has always been a great sixth man for this team, but their trade to bring in sharp shooter Kyle Korver has been the X-factor. He has helped make Utah the eighth best three-point shooting team in the NBA. Utah is solid through and through and is a team which never lacks effort.

Why they won’t:

While Utah has been the most unstoppable team in the NBA on its home floor, it is a lackluster 17-23 on the road. The Jazz will not have home court advantage throughout the postseason so they could go down again in the Western Conference Finals in a close series. Despite what one would expect, the Jazz are not a good rebounding team. They rank just 26th in the league in defensive rebounding and 13th on the offensive glass. In the games that Utah has dropped this season, it has been dominated on the boards, and that stands to be one of its most glaring weaknesses. The Jazz are also very streaky, meaning that they will have flawless spurts throughout a game, but they will also fall into costly droughts. It will be up to Deron Williams to orchestrate the offense to keep them away from those lengthy cold spells, but I’m not sure if he has the maturity yet to do so.

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