To Win or Not to Win

Much has been said about the Western Conference and the historic playoff race that we are witnessing this season. As scary as it has been and continues to be, I must say that I have enjoyed this regular season most thoroughly. I think the playoffs are going to be even better. But the closeness of this race has brought up some interesting discussion. Every season at about this time, you start to hear that the really bad teams are talking about tanking a couple of games to increase their chances of winning the lottery (Does it really matter though what the odds are? Portland is somehow going to win it again. That really sucked that they got Roy and Oden in two consecutive years.) Anyway, the idea of tanking for better lottery position is well documented and discussed. But there is a similar phenomena manifesting itself right now in this ever-so-tight playoff race in the West. Some teams have the incentive to lose games now in order to secure the seed that will hopefully give them the path of least resistance to the finals. Take the Jazz for example. Let's face it, we don't want to play the Lakers or the Spurs in the playoffs. Heck, I'd be happy if we never had to play either of them again ever. But back to topic. If you take a look at the way the brackets would shape out today, the Lakers and the Spurs would be on the other side of the bracket which would mean we wouldn't have to face them until the conference finals. However, that could change if either San Antonio or LA was able to catch the Hornets. As it stands right now, the gap between the Hornets and the Spurs and Lakers is only two losses. If we play and beat the Hornets, that gap would shrink and New Orleans still has to play the Lakers later this week. If LA wins that, they could grab the #1 seed and we would most likely be playing them is the second round. Not Good. Now, for all intents and purposes, the Jazz have the four seed locked up. The magic number is down to one. With the way the Jazz and the NugNugs have been playing lately, I think we can go ahead and pencil that one in as a done deal. What that means is that we can stomach a loss a little easier now because our position is somewhat locked. I know, I know, we haven't talked about home court advantage yet, but I will. Just be patient. So what some are suggesting is that the Jazz should let the Hornets beat them tonight (it hurts just typing in those words) in order to help New Orleans solidify their position as the #1 seed out west. Well, I don't like it. I think it is a terrible idea. Maybe I have a little bit of Jerry Sloan in me, but I just can't really seem to figure out how losing EVER helps. I think you have got to go out there and play your hardest to win every single game, regardless of the way it will affect the standings and seedings. For one thing, if you let New Orleans win, you are assuming you aren't going to lose to the Rockets and Nuggets at home which you really can't assume. Two or three unexpected losses right now would really hurt. This is also where home court becomes a huge issue. The Jazz have proven that they are darn near unbeatable at home this season. I personally think that in the playoffs it will be even harder to win there. So, I think home court advantage is way more important than who we play because I think we can beat anybody if we have home court. So, at the end of it all, I think we need to win as many games as we can. It will help us in the standings and more importantly, it will help our confidence going into the playoffs. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think the Jazz are going to make some serious noise in the playoffs.