NBA Regular Season: Utah Jazz (32-29) at Chicago Bulls (34-27) -- Game Preview

NBA Regular Season 2012-2013, Game 62:

Utah Jazz (32-29) at Chicago Bulls (34-27)

#UTAaCHI Game Stream -- Blog a Bull -- Jazz vs Bulls coverage

No D-Rose, no problem . . . right?

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The Basics:

The Utah Jazz are in quite a tailspin right now. The team has lost 7 of their last 11 games, and three straight on the road. In fact if you look past our 2nd night on a back-to-back road win against the Minnesota Timberwolves (back before Valentine's day) we haven't won a road game since January 12th. It's March right now. We're not so hot on the road. We're also not fully healthy right now either. The Jazz are still without former rotation player Raja Bell. Who am I kidding? Raja Bell may not even BE with the team for another 48 hours. (You know why, because Travis Leslie happened.) The status of Al Jefferson is the big question mark for tonight. He's ready to go by his own feel for things, and he's going to get the "Karl Malone tape job" to help with support for his left ankle. So that means we'll be at full strength; though, Mo Williams and Paul Millsap are both recently back from injuries. It will be a healthy roster on paper -- but three of our starters are still a little ginger.

We'll take it though as the Chicago Bulls are in the middle of some pretty historic injuries this season. The Big one is that Derrick Rose is still out. He's cleared to play, but his coach wants to keep him out still. So, yeah. I'll take it. Kirk Hinrich and Richard Hamilton are also supposed to miss tonight's game (for a swollen right foot and back spasms respectively). Last, Taj Gibson has a sprained left knee and should be out.

Taj killed us last time we played and he's a very good bench guy who plays defense and takes (and finishes) shots in the paint. No Rose is the big story, but Nate Robinson dropped 18 and 9 last time we played. He looks to be out of favor right now with coach Tom Thibodeau right now so that is good news for us. That said, guys like Nate rob always go off on us for some reason.

The Bulls are *only* 17-14 at home, but are a strong defensively club. Those clubs are the ones that hurt us most, not the high scoring clubs. We're much worse at 10-21 at home and we're desperate for a win. We play tomorrow night in New York against the Knicks. A 0-4 road trip would look really bad, so the Jazz need to play some sweet music tonight in the Windy City against a club we are less injured than.

I hope for a win. Also, next time we play the Bulls in Chicago, pretty sure MyLo and I will be there.