Utah Jazz host their own comeuppance, the Boston Celtics, in Monday Night showdown

SB Nation

Strap yourselves to your seats, ladies and gentlemen, because the Boston Celtics are coming to town. The Celtics have fallen a bit from grace since their championship-winning 2023-24 season. Blame it on Jayson

Tatum’s Achilles injury, blame it on an overdependence on the three-point shot, blame it on the boogie for all I care.

But the C’s are walking into the Delta Center and Salt Lake City on Monday with a record standing at 3-4. Suffering bitter defeat at the hands of Philadelphia, New York, and Detroit on back-to-back-to-back games to open the season, one would only expect such a schedule to deliver a winless skid before the turn of the millenium. But Philadelphia is surprisingly strong. New York has a heartbeat. Detroit is one of the most exciting young teams in basketball.

But Boston? I don’t know, something is off, and it feels like more than a simple Jayson Tatum issue. They won the next three games on their plate — one of which was a rematch with the Sixers — but lost their most recent appointment with the new-look Houston Rockets.

I will not be making jokes about Jaylen Brown’s hairline. As a follically challenged individual myself, I can understand why he might be a bit embarrassed about his tendency to recede. I am, however fascinated to hear about OG Anunoby’s laundry bill the following day.

On the opposite end of the floor, the Utah Jazz have graciously fallen back to Earth after a mind-boggling start to the season. The losses are piling up, as are social media’s demands to fire Will Hardy, a head coach who is fulfilling his job description about as well as any mortal man could. I’m certain those same fans will begin calling for the job of their local Chipotle server, who likewise slighted their customer by not stuffing their burrito with enough salsa to tranquilize Ned Nederlander.

Utah is fresh off a bludgeoning at the hands of the mighty Charlotte Hornets and with futile foundation covering their black eye, they open the door and welcome Boston’s finest (the basketball team, not the police force. Do they call the police in Boston “Boston’s finest” like New York? It feels like they would…) into their home. And despite everything I said about the team’s early struggles, I simply cannot ignore that Utah very well could get pulverized on Monday night.

Boston is hungry to resurface above the .500 mark after Houston dunked them back into the pool, and Utah seems the perfect bouey to banish to the deep in substitution. Davey Jones has kept the Jazz on his ledger, knowing they would soon return to the inky and stifling depths.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Jazz. I am pleased to inform you that Lauri Markkanen is, in fact, that dude. He averages 33.0 point per night through six games, and enforces his will upon the mere mortals of the NBA with his righteous fist. Unfortunately for Utah’s demigod, he remains Utah’s demigod. Cursed to share a basketball floor with such ineptitude and incapability, most would be sombered into submission during their fourth season of Jazz basketball. Lauri remains unshaken.

Keyonte George is Utah’s frontrunner for most improved player, much to the delight of our Tokyo chapter of the Keyonte George fan club (+1 member in the last year!). He’s dishing out 8.8 assists per night and — dare I say it — seems especially capable of handling the rock for the Utah Jazz even once Isaiah Collier returns.

Players to watch in this one, if you ask the opinion of this disembodied jumble of words floating through the internet, are Ace Bailey and Taylor Hendricks. Two players who looked poised to break out during the preseason have been bafflingly stimied in regular season appearances.

Ace has been recovering from a mysterious illness, so I don’t mean to be too harsh on his first few NBA appearances, but he seems to have a long way to go before he’s fully comfortable in a professional setting. Averaging 4.7 points on 27.5% shooting from the field, I feel we saw a vision of what Ace Bailey can be in his first preseason game, and his regular season stumblings aren’t a proper indication of his identity as a player.

Taylor Hendricks has likewise struggled to find his footing after a stellar preseason. Just 5.7 points per night has been… well underwhelming after what we saw in his preseason showcases. He’s recovering from a gruesome injury, yes, and of course he deserves all the patience one can afford, but he looked great before we breached the boundary of the regular season. A solid game at home could shift the narrative.