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Jazz jumped 2 spots in the nba powerrankings! number 9 now

and from number 13 to number 11 on the espn power rankings

Playing that stubbornly slow pace and typically sticky D, combined with a fairly favorable early schedule, has the Jazz looking like the tough out most expected. They don't have Gordon Hayward going yet, though, so consider that a priority as Utah undertakes a pretty challenging four-game swing through the East this week.

Fairly favorable early schedule my eye!!! 8 of the first 10 on the road including 4 likely playoff teams from the East?
 
Warriors defensive rating is only 2 points lower than ours, but they play 10 point higher pace.

Ridiculous.

I agree they are ridiculous.

Not sure I understand your point since pace is irrelevant to the defensive rating. It is based on 100 possession basis.
 
I agree they are ridiculous.

Not sure I understand your point since pace is irrelevant to the defensive rating. It is based on 100 possession basis.
Generally it's harder to defend with when your team pushes pace.

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Fairly favorable early schedule my eye!!! 8 of the first 10 on the road including 4 likely playoff teams from the East?

I'd guess they are ranking based on the 6 games so far and not the next 4.

And I'd say they are correct. Have not played a top team. Schedule strength is 27th based on sagarin.
 
Generally it's harder to defend with when your team pushes pace.

But good defense also leads to fast breaks/ pace.

There is no correlation between pace and defensive ranking per possession. Look at last year, the fastest 5 in pace had an average defensive ranking of 13. The slowest 5 in pace had an average defensive ranking of 17.

If you are into stats, a scatter plot shows complete randomness. A regression gives a slope with a p value of 0.4 (no correlation).
 
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