Jazz HC Addresses Lauri Markkanen's Wrist After Taking a 'Beating'
The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, 127-115. It was a tough night for the Jazz in more ways than one.
Losing this late in the year with a playoff berth at stake is never a good thing, but what Jazz fans will be worried about moving forward is the status of leading scorer Lauri Markkanen’s left wrist.
With 4:18 left to play, Trail Blazers guard Ryan Arcidiacono pulled Markkanen down in midair on a layup attempt at the rim. Markkanen hit the floor hard and aggravated his left wrist, which appeared to already be bothering him prior to the fall.
Arcidiacono was hit with a flagrant type 1 foul, but the collateral damage from the incident may run deeper than losing a game in the standings.
After the game, Jazz Coach Will Hardy took note of the pounding that Markkanen has been taking this year.
“Lauri takes a beating," Hardy said post-game. “He plays a physical game. Took a couple of hard falls. ... He'll get looked at tomorrow and it will be a day-to-day thing. They talked to him during the game and he said he was okay, but when your body cools down and he wakes up tomorrow, it could be a different story."
Here's what Markkanen said about his wrist post-game.
“The X-ray was good, clean. I don’t know more about it, but we’ll see how it feels tomorrow and go from there,” Markkanen said. “Once you get going, you don’t really think about it. But then obviously at dead balls and stuff it just happens to (hurt) again.”
In what was arguably Utah’s easiest game left on the schedule, the Jazz looked flat most of the night. Was Utah due for a letdown after beating the Boston Celtics and Sacramento Kings in back-to-back games?
Did the Jazz underestimate a team coming into the contest on a six-game losing streak? Either way, Hardy was unable to push the right buttons to get Utah over the hump.
"There are nights where your team can be kind of a step behind, a step slow," Hardy said. ”We went to some different lineups to see if we could find a spark, but we were just a little bit late defensively."
With the loss, the Jazz fall out of the play-in tournament and back into the lottery. This doesn’t bode well with the Eastern Conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks coming to town on Friday night, followed by a road game against the Kings.
However, it feels like every time the Jazz should be counted out, they find ways to win games they’re not meant to. That’s what Utah will need to do to stay in the thick of it.
Utah has 10 games left and may need to win six to get back into the play-in tournament. Taking a quick glance at the remaining opponents, the Jazz will most likely be underdogs in seven of those games.
Getting Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Collin Sexton on the court will be key. It’s time to start refreshing those social media feeds for the upcoming injury reports.
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