Tonight marks the Jazz’s preparation for their closing performance in the ceremony. They went through the depths of hell for the last four years, they made their bid for Ace Bailey, they got their win-now trade piece, and now we must bid adieu to what was the strangest Jazz season in the last decade.
Funnily enough, the Rockets clinched their second consecutive Playoff birth after Phoenix’s blowout loss against Charlotte. Unsurprisingly, they built this team on the backbone of the NBA Draft Lottery
by throwing out the most putrid lineups imaginable from 2021-2023; the same precedent that Adam Silver wants to stop so that a first-round exit Playoff team can achieve a top-4 pick, for some reason.
Today’s Jazz injury report will feature all your favorite regulars, including Blake Hinson, who has been bestowed the highest honor one can receive for being capable of hitting three triples in a row. Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier, Elijah Harkless (hamstring triplets?!), JJJ, Markkanen, Kessler, and Nurkic continue their comfortable ride on the Jazz bench during the final stretch.
Rockets are still all business despite their latest Playoff birth, featuring only their true injured players of Fred VanVleet (torn ACL) and Steven Adams (ankle surgery). That’s because they’re only 1.5 games back of catching up to 4th-seeded Denver and taking home-court advantage into the first round.
Catching up to the Jazz’s standings, on the other hand, Sacramento’s interesting 123-115 win over the Raptors only puts the Jazz 1 game ahead of them in the standings. Yes, DeMar DeRozan just played 35 minutes in a meaningless April game. Utah can’t afford any chances; their strategy is to put pedal to the medal, pulling out the most disgusting lineup you will ever see just in case they fly too close to the sun and win a basketball game. That could be the difference between draft lottery immunity and an 0.6% chance of giving up their pick to OKC.
I would bet my buck that Ace Bailey is determined to finish this season strong. The media had a chance to propel Ace Bailey to All-Rookie 1st Team honors, and may have completely sabotaged that by giving Western Conference Rookie of the Month to…Maxime Raynaud?
Don’t get me wrong Kings fans, I, too, remember when Kessler was the only promising young piece on my team. But it feels a little mundane not to reward Ace Bailey after having statistically one of the greatest months one could have as a teenager.
But the Jazz do, in fact, have more young promising pieces that they can barely even keep up with.
Kyle Filipowski has been juggling between the 4 and the 5 spot, playing out of position 90% of the time while still managing to average 15.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game since the All-Star Break. Utah’s gravest mistake may be choosing to unleash Sensabaugh. Since returning to the starting lineup on March 9, Ice Brice has scored over 20 points in 8 of 10 games. During this period, he is averaging 25.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.6 three-pointers made, 3.0 assists, and 1.0 steals per game, while shooting an efficient 53.7% from the field and 47.4% from three-point range.
Point in case, this is not a game for the Rockets to slack off, or the Jazz to…work hard, I guess. Utah can do the whole charade, maybe a 21-3 run sprinkled in there, a Svi Mykhailiuk sudden heat-check, perhaps even a Kennedy Chandler hustle montage. All that matters is that Utah comes in to collect that 57th loss, no matter how badly some Twitter loser tries to convince you that it’s ‘ruining’ the NBA product.
How to watch:
Who: Utah Jazz (21-56) at Houston Rockets (47-29)
When: April 3rd, 6:00PM Mountain Time
Where: Toyota Center, Houston
Channel: Peacock, Jazz+, KJZZ
Radio: 97.5/1280 The Zone
