Utah Jazz: Ricky Rubio questionable for Sunday’s bout at Minnesota

Ricky Rubio, who continues to deal with hamstring soreness, has been listed as questionable for tonight’s bout between the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Utah Jazz will have yet another chance to make a significant leap in the standings on Sunday evening when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves in a bout that could have critical importance in the playoff race. Entering Sunday’s slate of games, the Jazz find themselves in seventh place in the West while the Wolves find themselves in fifth although they hold just a half-game lead over Utah.

This contest is bound to have a playoff atmosphere not only due to how close these two teams are in the standings as they battle for postseason positioning, but also because the last contest got pretty chippy. The game saw Karl-Anthony Towns get ejected in the first half after receiving a pair of technical fouls.

Later, Jeff Teague was ejected for an uncalled-for cheap shot on Ricky Rubio. This led to a heated argument between Jae Crowder and Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau and eventually Crowder was ejected as well after receiving his second technical late in the game.

The bad blood certainly made for an intense and heated game that should ramp up the atmosphere even further this time around. Asked if there was still lingering animosity between the Jazz and Timberwolves, Towns insinuated pretty clearly that there still was, as you can see in the tweet below:

Unfortunately for Utah, the guy that for some reason or another seemed to draw the Wolves’ ire, Ricky Rubio, may not be suiting up for tonight’s contest against his former team. Rubio is currently listed as questionable as he deals with a hamstring injury that kept him sidelined in Utah’s last contest against the Memphis Grizzlies.

If Rubio’s indeed unable to suit up, it will be unfortunate not only because it will be detrimental to Utah’s chances of success, but also because it will eliminate an interesting story line of seeing how the Wolves react to Rubio this time around. There have been rumors that Teague is tired of playing in Rubio’s shadow after taking over the position of the former fan favorite, so seeing these two do battle once again, especially after last game’s interaction, would be thrilling if it indeed pans out.

Ironically, though, per Zone Coverage’s Tim Faklis, Jeff Teague’s status is also up in the air as he’s being called a game time decision for tonight’s contest. He reportedly banged knees with another player in the loss to Memphis and has been ailing somewhat since then, so that could very well be what would keep him out of the contest.

If either or both of Teague and Rubio are unable to play, it will certainly change the atmosphere and dynamic of the contest. However, it absolutely will not change the importance.

If Ricky isn’t able to go, the Jazz will need the likes of Royce O’Neale and Dante Exum to step up just like they did in his previous absence. O’Neale finished with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field to go along with six rebounds, four assists, three steals and a plus-minus of plus-16. Exum was even more impressive as he logged 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from deep in arguably the best game of his career.

Those two played a key part in Friday’s win and will likely need to do so again whether Rubio is active or not.

Next: Utah Jazz vs. Minnesota: Keys to getting a playoff altering win

The Jazz and Timberwolves tip off at 5:00 PM MT in Minnesota in a game that could very well have a direct impact on each team’s final playoff seed once the dust of the season’s stretch run settles.