Coach Quin Snyder keeping Utah Jazz's win streak in perspective

One of the generally accepted conventional wisdoms about successfully navigating an 82-game NBA regular season is (repeat after us) never getting too high off a victory or too low after a loss. Holding onto the emotional middle ground was Utah coach Quin Snyder’s suggestion after his Jazz team won its ninth consecutive game Sunday, beating the Trail Blazers at Portland.

Even if it meant enough to some of the Jazz and their fans to carve the occasion not just on a tree but on their foreheads. Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News wrote about the Jazz’s performance and Snyder’s cautious reaction:

“This is the NBA regular season,” the low-key Snyder said. “I’m not counting when we have a losing streak, I’m not counting when we have a winning streak. As far as tallying things, no one is taking chalk and putting anything on the board or carving something on a tree.”

Still, the Jazz are back to .500 for the first time since early December at 28-28 with their longest winning streak in eight years and are breathing down the necks of several Western Conference teams in their quest for the playoffs. Isn’t that something to be excited about?

“It’s nice that there’s a (winning) streak, because that means we won,” offered Snyder, whose team will try to keep the streak going Monday night at home against San Antonio.

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If ever there was a night for Utah’s streak to end, it appeared it might be Sunday at the Moda Center, where the Jazz were playing a team ahead of them in the standings that had won nine straight home games and was coming off an 18-point road victory two nights earlier in Sacramento.

The Jazz, on the other hand, were playing without point guard Ricky Rubio, who has been on fire for the past three weeks, for only the second time all season and were integrating [Jae] Crowder into the lineup after he was acquired in a trade with Cleveland on Thursday.

Crowder scored 15 points in his Jazz debut, Derrick Favors had 15 plus 11 rebounds, Rudy Gobert double-doubled as well with 12 points and 11 boards, and Rookie of the Year candidate Donovan Mitchell scored 21 of is 27 points in the second half. Then there is this, helping to explain Utah’s hot streak:

Joe Ingles during the Jazz's 9-game winning streak: 17 ppg, 60.4 FG%, 59.3 3%, plus-142

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 12, 2018