With two seeding games remaining, the Utah Jazz (43-27) need either one win or one Dallas Mavericks (42-30) loss to guarantee that they won’t fall to the 7th seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Today, Utah has a chance to make both of those things happen when they take on the Mavericks without some of Dallas’ best players on the floor.
Conversely, if climbing the standings is the kind of thing that interests you (personally, a 3-6 first round matchup with Denver is my preference), the Jazz can pass the Oklahoma City Thunder to reclaim the 5th seed with a win and a Thunder loss to the suddenly-white-hot Phoenix Suns.