The Phoenix Suns will meet the Utah Jazz in the next In-Season Tournament game but will Bradley Beal play?
The Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz begin a back-to-back series of games that will see the Suns and Jazz collide in an In-Season Tournament game, and then a standard, non-tournament, regular-season game. This will be the second and third time the teams have met one another, but it’ll be the first time the Jazz have to play the Suns with two of their three stars.
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are set to play in the first of the two contests, with fellow star Bradley Beal being an unknown. He’s missed a good chunk of the early season due to a back injury, and he missed his last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Beal was a late scratch for that game due to a back injury that has flared up.
But will Beal be able to play against the Jazz in what will be Utah’s third In-Season game out of four? It seems unlikely. It was announced on Thursday that Beal’s status had been downgraded to doubtful against the Jazz, giving Utah a solid chance to stretch their tournament standing to 3-0.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Both Booker and Durant are dropping 30 points per night on excellent efficiency, and with the Jazz’s terrible defense, the duo could end up going off for far more than that when they meet.
Durant on his own blew out the Jazz, with a final score of 133-115. Now the Jazz have to face off with a Suns team that includes Booker, so things are going to be tough. Good thing for the Jazz, however, the Suns aren’t a great team on their own, and Jordan Clarkson seems to be mostly back to his prior form.
If the Jazz can get their defense in order, they may just have a shot to beat the Suns on Friday.