The Utah Jazz are hosting the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
The Utah Jazz are hosting the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, with both teams coming into the game sporting a losing record. The Jazz are 1-3, and the Grizzlies are 0-4. The Grizzlies are without their star point guard Ja Morant, but the team around him was supposed to be good enough to carry a modest record until his return. That hasn’t been the case.
The Jazz are fully healthy and have no suspensions but can’t seem to win, despite many, including us, picking them to finish in the Top 6 in the playoffs. Now, it may be early, and losses happen, but the Jazz are getting blown out and dominated in most of their games so far. The defense is a mess and the team lacks anyone with any real offensive talent to pair with Lauri Markkanen.
It’s way too early to say this, but we’re going to anyway, this is an early must-win for both teams. So why should you watch this potential slog of a game?
A bounce-back win (hopefully)
As mentioned before, the Jazz are 1-3 and have not looked good for most of the year. If it wasn’t for one near 40-point performance from Markkanen, the Jazz would be 0-4 right now. This is an easy win against a bad team, and the Jazz could easily add this win to their record. If you haven’t been a fan of 75% of the games you’ve seen so far, this may be the time to really get invested.
Can Talen Horton-Tucker and Jordan Clarkson both start playing better?
Talen Horton-Tucker and Jordan Clarkson have been borderline unplayable this season. Horton-Tucker is shooting under 40% from the floor, an all too common occurrence for him, and Clarkson is even worse off than him. Neither guy can score right now, and considering neither man can play defense either, this is causing some problems. Why, oh why, are the Jazz struggling right now?
How bad is (insert team here)
If the Jazz lose to the Grizzlies, the team is in trouble. The Grizzlies are a bad team without Morant and that’s on clear display. Sure, not having Steven Adams was also a huge loss, but that doesn’t erase that they’re not playing well right now. And if the Grizzlies lose to the Jazz, then the team is in trouble. The Jazz have not been a good team, and that’s been pretty clear. They don’t even have an excuse for this, they just have a bunch of players who all have roughly the same skillset. And it’s causing problems. Whoever loses this game may in fact be the worst team in the West.