Utah Jazz Injury Woes Strike Once Again, Favors Speaks Out on Twitter

In wake of the contest against the Houston Rockets as part of a seven-game stretch against playoff teams, the Utah Jazz received some more unfortunate injury news.

On the eve of one of the biggest games of the latter part of the season and the start of one of the most daunting stretches of games the team has faced all year, the Utah Jazz received some more bad news in terms of injuries.

Joe Johnson (groin strain) and George Hill (toe soreness) who were inactive for Monday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans are still listed on the report as questionable, while Shelvin Mack is once again listed as out.

However, this time around another name has been added to the injury report, that of Derrick Favors, who will miss tonight’s important match-up with the Rockets due to knee soreness. This season’s endless injury woes are becoming such a mainstay that quite frankly it’s hardly even a surprise anymore.

Especially in the case of Derrick Favors who in reality hasn’t looked right all season, while it’s a frustrating new development to have him sidelined for one of the biggest games of the year, his absence is really not all that shocking. Favors played great against the Rockets in Utah’s victories last year, however, and it’s no secret that Boris Diaw and Trey Lyles have both been less than adequate substitutes at the power forward position, so it’s definitely a bit of a letdown.

With Joe Johnson who’s capable and effective as a stretch-four also questionable to play, it could be a long night for the Utah Jazz who will no doubt miss him as well as their starting power forward Derrick Favors.

Interestingly enough, Favors recently took to social media to express what many fans have noticed and presumed by making it clear that he’s not even close to 100 percent healthy. In response to a tweet by FanRag Sports’ Zach Harper stating that Favors had been blocked on dunk attempts the most of any player this season, Faves responded with a somewhat fiery and eye-opening rebuttal as you can see in the tweet below:

Not only was it surprising to see Favors reply to what otherwise may have been a rather insignificant statistical tweet, but he also appeared to take some issue with the comment and made it clear that he has most definitely been playing at less than full bore this season.

That of course doesn’t come as any surprise for Jazz fans who have watched him play, but it was still interesting to see him admit it outright. Given that Derrick’s knee has plagued him all season, it seems highly unlikely that it will be fully healed and ready to go by the start of the playoffs, which is a real shame given that last year we saw a glimpse of just what Favors is capable of doing when he’s “not playing on one leg.”

Therefore, Utah will be shorthanded once again tonight against the Houston Rockets. Hopefully it turns out that one of either Johnson or Hill ends up being able to play, because while Utah has been able to survive without Favors, their offense has struggled mightily without Hill to run the point and as arguably the Jazz’s best bench player (along with Joe Ingles), Joe Johnson has proven vital to this team’s success as well.

When you consider the almost non-stop injury woes the Jazz have had to deal with this season, it’s truly remarkable that they’ve managed to put up an impressive 40-24 record and sit at the fourth seed in the West at this point of the year.

It’s even more impressive given the fact that key players such as Derrick Favors, Alec Burks, Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw, Dante Exum and even Rodney Hood have largely under-performed this year and have failed to meet the heightened expectations placed on them going into this season.

That is both a testament to the craftiness of head coach Quin Snyder as well as the undeniably enormous strides that Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert have taken. Without a doubt the Jazz could have never weathered all the storms they’ve had to face without the incredible play of those two stars.

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Whether they’ll be able to do enough to overcome this latest obstacle and come away with a win over Houston tonight remains to be seen. Yet, whatever ends up being the case, it’s evident that for the Jazz to be able to make any sort of noise in the playoffs, they’ll need to get a lot healthier or have some of their underwhelming role players step up in a big way.

Or, perhaps if they can finally get lucky, both.