Jazz lose to Timberwolves and may have lost Joe Ingles for the season

The Utah Jazz lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 126-106. Easily the worst part of the loss was seeing Joe Ingles go down with what looked like a serious injury.

Ingles’ knee appears to buckle pretty badly and according to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Jazz are fearing a serious injury.

There will be an MRI tomorrow in Salt Lake City and we’ll see how severe the injury is, but it does not look promising. Injuries like this remind you that these players are people. Joe Ingles has a family that is definitely worrying about him tonight. Let’s all send our best thoughts and prayers to the Ingles family.

The Ingles injury caps off what has been a dreadful January for the Utah Jazz who have now lost 11 of their last 13, they’re currently on a 5-game losing streak, and in January have a record of 4-12 in January. I am personally very happy to put this month behind me and I’m sure the Jazz are as well.

As far as the basketball played on the court, there were some interesting things from this game. Alex Jensen coached this game in place of Quin Snyder who has entered covid protocols. Along with Quin Snyder, Danuel House was also sidelined for covid protocols.

On top of that not having Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert again, they also didn’t have Trent Forrest because of his right ankle sprain.

Losing that much personnel makes winning difficult. That said, Mike Conley looked very good again. Conley has been very good this month despite the Jazz’s record and shows why he’s such a luxury on this team. Tonight Conley had 22 points while shooting 8/17 from the field and 3/4 from three. He also dished out 5 assists and had 3 steals. But it wasn’t close to enough. Hassan Whiteside had a good first half but got nearly played off the floor in the second half. Bojan Bogdanovic had a really nice bounce-back night shooting the ball. He was 7/11 from the field and 4/5 from three. His finger appears to be bothering him still because he had 4 turnovers.

Because of all the injuries Jared Butler and Elijah Hughes played rotation minutes with the available starters. Hughes had a rough night going 1/6 from the field and 0/5 from three (one of those threes was a last-minute prayer after a late pass from Clarkson) but it wasn’t a good night for him. Jared Butler was a different story. In the first half Butler looked a little tentative as he was obviously trying his best just not to screw things up. He played fine but it looks like he just needs more confidence. It was fantastic during the game to see Donovan Mitchell sitting next to the rookie and coaching him up.

You could see a difference for Butler who played with more aggression in the second half. For the game Butler went 4/5 from the field, 1/1 from three and dished out 3 assists in 15 minutes. Butler has looked better with each game he’s gotten recently, and with Joe Ingles out, he may be called on to play more minutes. The Jazz may have no choice.

All in all, it’s a rough night for the Jazz who have likely lost one of the Jazz’s most beloved players in franchise history. Joe Ingles has been one of the most important, and fun, parts of Jazz basketball for the last 8 years. Nothing but respect for a great man, father, and teammate.