I, like most Utah Jazz fans, found myself cursing the basketball gods on Wednesday night. All the Jazz needed for a more favorable first-round matchup was for the Sacramento Kings to beat the Portland Trail Blazers’ scrubs or for the Minnesota Timberwolves to beat out the Denver Nuggets. Both were in prime positions to do so – Sacramento led by as many as 28 and Minnesota owned a double-figure lead late in the fourth – but ultimately it wasn’t to be so.
Instead, the Blazers moved up to third place in the West and the Houston Rockets dropped to fourth where they will battle the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs.