Both Utah Jazz starting big men go down to injury

Although the Utah Jazz pulled out an incredible win over the Boston Celtics last night, it came with a price as both Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors suffered injuries.

The basketball gods giveth and the basketball gods taketh away.

On the night that the long-injured Joe Johnson made his return for the Utah Jazz and just one game after Rodney Hood was back in action, the injury bug swooped in once again and nabbed two more Utah Jazz players. It’s almost as if there’s some law of the universe stating that the Jazz are never allowed to have a fully healthy roster at any one time.

The two guys that went down against the Boston Celtics in last night’s contest just so happen to be pretty important ones as the Utah Jazz lost both their starting big men, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, in a matter of minutes. Coincidentally, that still wasn’t enough to cost Utah the victory as the “surviving” teammates played their hearts out and came away with an impressive 107-95 victory over the East-leading Boston Celtics.

Rudy Gobert’s injury was clearly the scarier of the two (albeit the least gruesome, you could say). Mere minutes into the game, both Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert found themselves fighting for an offensive rebound. Favors failed to secure it and began to stumble and just as Gobert had seemingly grabbed possession of the ball, Favors fell right onto Gobert’s knee, clearly forcing it into an unnatural position.

You can see it for yourself below:

Rudy Gobert gingerly left the court and it was pretty clear that he was in a lot of pain.

Shortly thereafter, Derrick Favors went over to contest a Jaylen Brown shot (a shot that never should have happened quite honestly given that the refs missed an obvious pushing foul that Aron Baynes committed against Joe Ingles right before it) and he was bopped just above the eye with Brown’s elbow.

The shot instantly sent Favors to the ground where he was bleeding from his eyebrow profusely. To add insult to injury, somehow after all that the foul was called on Favors. He was escorted back to the locker room and eventually treated with six stitches for an eye laceration. Fortunately, he passed concussion protocol, so there is a good chance he could be back in action as early as tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite the painful blow he received.

Rudy Gobert, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky. Although the initial diagnosis was somewhat of a positive one, he still has yet to undergo an MRI and any length of absence for Gobert is unfortunate. His initial evaluation showed an MCL sprain in his left knee. If that’s the case, he would likely miss around two to four weeks. He was quick to recover from his more recent right knee injury, though, so hopefully such will be the case again.

For what it’s worth, Rudy Gobert mentioned that he doesn’t believe there was ligament damage either, but of course the MRI will be the most telling.

The good news of all this is that the Utah Jazz were able to grind out a win over the Celtics even without their two most prominent big men. That’s likely not a sustainable result, but it does speak volumes to this team’s grit and determination. Coincidentally, the first five wins of Utah’s recent six-game winning streak came while Rudy Gobert was injured, so ideally they’ll be able to pull of a similar feat once again.

Next: Utah Jazz vs Boston Celtics: The revenge game that wasn’t… or was it?

Be sure to stay tuned to the TheJNotes.com for further details regarding Rudy Gobert’s injury, Derrick Favors’ condition and the injury report for tonight’s contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers.