The Christmas season is once again upon us, which in turn means the Jazz must be preparing for their traditional pre-Christmas, east coast road swing. This year the Jazz open in Indiana (13-12) this afternoon, then they travel to play the Knicks (9-17) tomorrow. After last night’s brawl in the Knicks/Nuggets game you would have to expect that the Jazz will be playing a depleted Knicks team. Then the Jazz will have a day off before facing off with red hot Joe Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks (9-14) on Wednesday. The Jazz will then finish their week off with back to back games in Charlotte (6-17) and Memphis (5-19) before returning to Utah to spend Christmas at home.

Last year on the same pre-Christmas road trip the Jazz went 1-4 with a win at Milwaukee and losses to the Pacers, Cavs, Celtics and Knicks. Nevertheless that was last year, and to say the eastern conference is weaker this year would be a major understatement and with the Jazz playing four eastern conference teams they should have some success. Especially considering that the combined record of the Jazz opponents this week is 42-79. I foresee the Jazz going at least 4-1 on the trip and wouldn’t be one bit surprised if the Jazz go 5-0.