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The Utah Jazz have no time to lick their wounds after getting beat down by the Washington Wizards. Tonight the Jazz will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder with the hopes of keeping the one seed for the playoffs.
They won’t be full strength for this one either.
Jordan Clarkson is doubtful for tonight's game (right ankle sprain).
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) April 13, 2021
Joe Ingles is out (left knee soreness).
Royce O'Neale is out (rest).
The Jazz will be without two of their Sixth Man of the Year candidates, Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson. That scoring is going to have to come from somewhere else. Likely, they’ll be relying on Mike Conley who will be available tonight and will probably be running pick and roll’s with Rudy Gobert all night long.
And of course, the Jazz still have that Donovan Mitchell guy who’s having a pretty good season last I checked.
For the Thunder, they’re struggling with injuries of their own. They’ll be without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander among others.
Thunder injury report tonight in Utah pic.twitter.com/flK7WdqXXN
— Andrew Schlecht (@AndrewKSchlecht) April 13, 2021
That’s a lot of players out for OKC so it gives the Jazz a chance to get a relatively easy victory. Although this does have some trap game potential so the Jazz can’t come into this one with low energy.
Game Info
When: Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 @ 7pm MST
Where: Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City
TV: AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain
Radio: 97.5 FM | 1280 AM The Zone
What to watch for
Who starts at the 4?
With Royce O’Neale sitting the Jazz will look at starting a variety of players. It’s possible they start Georges Niang who has had a solid season. Or they could start Juwan Morgan who Quin Snyder has played in the past to keep Niang on the floor with the reserves.
It’s a tossup buy my guess is that Snyder plays Morgan to start and then sees how it goes. Morgan has showed up nicely in the past as a spot starter when the Jazz have needed him. He brings a nice toughness on defense and rebounds the ball well. He also can hit a spot up three and has a knack for getting loose balls.
In all honesty, Morgan should probably get these minutes. He should have fresh legs and can bring an energy to the starting unit that could be the difference in this game if the Jazz are laboring with this being the second night of a back to back and the fifth game in seven nights. Good heavens.