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Utah Jazz: GSW May Rest Some Players Tonight, Hayward Out

By Jared Woodcox

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The Utah Jazz received another wave of bad news as Gordon Hayward will not play in tonight’s contest against a Golden State Warriors team that may rest players as well.

What was originally a game that many Jazz fans had circled on their calendar since before the season began has now turned into a likely disaster. The Golden State Warriors are in town for their only stop in Salt Lake City on the season, but unfortunately half of the Jazz roster won’t be there for the game.

Ok, so half the roster is an exaggeration, but it’s in fact entirely accurate to report that 80 percent of the starting lineup will indeed be out.

It was bad enough when the news broke yesterday that George Hill and Rodney Hood (who many thought had just been resting or out for precautionary measures in preparation for the Warriors game) would both be out for the game, but now this morning it’s been reported that Gordon Hayward did not participate in shootaround and will not play tonight.

Apparently when Hayward went out momentarily in the game against the Suns with obvious discomfort in his formerly fractured finger, it was worse than we thought. X-rays did come back negative, but apparently it is too painful to play and/or too risky to chance re-injuring it.

Thus this tweet below from the Deseret News’ Jody Genessy just became all the more appropriate. With Rudy Gobert in the game as the lone Jazz starter, it would seem very likely that most (if not all) of the Jazz’s hope for victory is lost.

I mean, come on, four starters down?! This is crazy! Look at the Warriors, what would they be with four starters out? Imagine Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green all sidelined. It would decimate them!

Yet, while we probably won’t find out what that exact situation would be like for them, there’s a chance we could be offered a small glimpse of it as there has been speculation that Steve Kerr may rest a handful of players in tonight’s contest.

That report existed before all these Jazz injury updates were released, but now that the injury news has broken, it seems even more likely that if the Warriors were going to pick a night to give their players a break, this game against a crippled Jazz team on the second night of a back-to-back would be ideal.

At Golden State’s shootaround prior to their game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Coach Kerr mentioned that they could possibly rest some guys during their tough road trip where they’ll go on to play the Grizzlies, Timberwolves and Pelicans after tonight’s contest.

And while it might make for a less than spectacular show for the fans who bought tickets to watch Raul Neto and Ian Clark duke it out on the hardwood, it might be better than the alternative of watching the Warriors four-headed dragon of Curry, Durant, Thompson and Green eat this wounded Jazz team alive.

We probably won’t know Golden State’s plan for sure until this evening once they release their updated lineup, but the safest bet is that even if they do rest a handful of guys, it’s doubtful that they’ll play pity party with the Jazz and sit four of their starters just for grins.

Golden State is still going to be out to win this game, make no mistake. And while resting the likes of say, Curry or Durant may help Utah slightly, with so many key Jazzmen out it would probably only make the blowout slightly less horrifying.

I’ll do my best to put my trust in the likely starting lineup of Dante Exum, Joe Ingles, Joe Johnson, Boris Diaw and Rudy Gobert, but with the Stifle Tower being the only regular in the mix, it’s hard to get overly optimistic.

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So in other words, regardless of what Kerr decides to do as far as resting players, we could be in for a scary ride tonight. And while this is usually the part where I end the piece with encouraging words of patience for this Jazz team, at this point I’m starting to wonder if that whole “Just wait until this team gets healthy” thing will ever actually happen.

Be sure to stay tuned to The J Notes for more updates on if the Warriors rest anyone tonight as well as which Jazzman is next to join the inactive list.

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