Conley Unavailable As Jazz Make Up Game Against Wizards
Mar 17, 2021, 5:54 PM
Jordan Clarkson #00, Joe Ingles #2, Rudy Gobert #27 and Royce O'Neale #23 of the Utah Jazz celebrate after a play against the Washington Wizards during the second half at Capital One Arena on January 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
(Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz will be without the services of Mike Conley when they face the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.
The guard will sit the game out in order to manage an ongoing hamstring injury that he first suffered on February 5 in the team’s win over the Charlotte Hornets.
The Wizards meanwhile will be playing on the second night of back-to-back games when they face the Jazz after hosting on the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
Jazz Have Been Successful While Short-Handed
Though the Jazz will miss Conley against the Wizards, they’ve proven the quality of the depth in their backcourt when missing rotation players this season.
The Jazz are undefeated when one of Conley, Donovan Mitchell, or Joe Ingles has missed games this season. The team is perfect 13-0 when playing down a member of the guard rotation.
Mike Conley will miss the @UtahJazz meeting with the @WashWizards tomorrow night as he continues to manage his hamstring injury.
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 17, 2021
Last season the Jazz won in Washington while playing without Mitchell who missed the game due to an illness, when the Jazz escaped with a 127-116 victory.
The Jazz are coming off a 117-109 victory over the Celtics in Boston on Monday night helping to slow a streak of four losses in the last six games.
Wizards Looking To Right Ship
While the Jazz are hoping to build off of Monday’s win, the Wizards are looking to push their momentum back in the right direction.
After starting the year 6-17, the Wizards appeared to be headed in the right direction after winning seven out of eight games, but since February 28 the team has lost seven out of eight games to once again fall towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference entering their matchup with the Kings.
Breaking: The @utahjazz matchup with the @WashWizards has been postponed. #TakeNote https://t.co/VkG11wdF8Q
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 13, 2021
The Jazz and Wizards were originally set to square off on January 13, but the game was postponed when Washington was unable to dress the league-minimum eight healthy players.
The matchup against the Wizards was the only postponed game for the Jazz through the first half of the regular season.
Key Matchup
The key matchup will pit the Jazz Mitchell against Wizards guard Bradley Beal. Beal leads the NBA in scoring at 32.3 points per game while grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game and handing out 4.6 assists.
Mitchell is averaging 24.6 points per game while corralling 4.5 rebounds and handing 5.4 assists.
brrrrrrrr 🕷#TakeNote | @spidadmitchell pic.twitter.com/rnMqJqLmMk
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) March 17, 2021
The two high-scoring guards are coming off All-Star appearances in Atlanta where Beal made his third appearance and Mitchell made his second.
Broadcast
The Jazz and Wizards will tip-off at 5 pm MT. The game will be broadcast on AT&T SportsNet and NBATV.
