The Utah Jazz are on a roll once again to begin the season as they are currently the third best team in the association with a 22-9 record. Their style of play is still similar over the last few seasons, but the media attention is still not at a high level. The main reason for this could be their dismal performance every year in the playoffs, thus people are not focusing on their regular season performance anymore.

Fortunately, Utah has been one of the organizations that has not been ravaged with COVID-19 and injuries. Their team has been solid and formidable in the regular season, with the combination of their outside shooting and defensive prowess being their calling cards.

As Christmas Day approaches for their matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, there are three things that the Jazz need to put on their Christmas wish list.

Utah Jazz Christmas Wish List

3. A second consistent scorer in NBA Playoffs

Donovan Mitchell has that assassin mentality all throughout the year, with his plethora of moves giving defenses headaches night in and night out. His focus and and aggressiveness is constantly at a high level even when opponents just force him to give up the ball. Mitchell's teammates have been sensational at certain points of the regular season, but his teammates lack the consistent production in the NBA Playoffs.

Utah heavily relies on the 3-point shot because of the numerous excellent shooters on their squad. However, it is difficult to continues solely living by this approach in the playoffs because a team could easily go on a dry spell, and it could cost them a series. Even as the first jump shooting team to win a championship, the Golden State Warriors had several options in their offensive schemes, especially when Klay Thompson struggled with his shot in some games of the 2015 NBA Finals.

The Jazz must realize that having a multitude of options on offense causes them to be less predictable in the playoffs.

2. Good health

Rudy Gobert and Mitchell were two of the first individuals that contacted the virus last March 2020, but their team has been mostly complete for majority of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. That may have been the main reason why they were the number one seed last year.

For their standards, the Jazz have been struggling in their homecourt this season. This is usually a massive advantage they possess every season, but the completeness of their lineup gives them the time and liberty to figure out their problems and fix it before the playoffs start. Mike Conley has been given some nights off for injury management, which is also a testament of Utah's desire to keep him as healthy as possible come playoff time.

1. Rudy Gobert continues another DPOY kind of year

With Gobert on track to contend for Defensive Player of the Year again, Utah continues to be stellar in that area this season. As Joe Ingles mentioned on JJ Redick's The Old Man & the Three podcast, teams actually constitute their offensive game plans to move Gobert away from the rim. Anchoring the rim and switching on quicker guards have been two impressive skills of Gobert.

His ability to protect the paint gives his wings and guards the ability to play peskier defense because they would not be terrified of their opponents getting easy layups. When the pace gets slower and defenses focus on one opponent in the playoffs, it is the team defense that would stand out and possibly catapult a team to a deep playoff run.

With the Jazz still lacking the national media recognition and attention, they do not make it affect their play. Utah could possibly be on the same path as the Milwaukee Bucks last season wherein luck went their way, and they claimed their second championship in franchise history. Moreover, Mitchell has proven that he could elevate his game like how Dwyane Wade carried the Miami Heat to the 2006 NBA championship.

These are two brilliant comparisons for this Jazz organization, and let's see if this is their year.