Utah Jazz at Golden State Warriors: Keys to the Game

Facing several injuries yet again, the Utah Jazz’s chances are less than optimal in tomorrow’s contest against the Golden State Warriors.

After suffering a disappointing loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night, the Utah Jazz’s fight for the fourth seed in the Western Conference took a serious blow. Looking ahead to the playoffs and trying to get healthy may now very well be their main goals, but they still have two games left to try to recover and finish with a 50-win season.

The first of those two games, though, will be extremely difficult as the Jazz will be in Golden State tomorrow. Despite already clinching the top seed in the West, rather than look to rest most of their starters, the Warriors will be rolling out the big guns with both Kevin Durant and Steph Curry planning to be in action.

It’s no secret how good the Warriors have been this season. And even though they don’t have much at stake in the contest, they’ll still likely be more than a banged-up Jazz team can handle. George Hill has missed the last six games due to a groin injury, and Gordon Hayward suffered a left quadriceps contusion during Saturday’s contest, meaning the outlook for either of them playing tomorrow is pretty bleak.

Not to mention, Raul Neto is out after spraining his ankle on Saturday as are both Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood, so there’s a very good chance that Utah could be without all of their starters besides the ever-reliable Rudy Gobert.

However, Utah has found success this season by successfully employing a “next man up” mentality and in the first meeting between the Jazz and Warriors, Utah almost pulled off the miracle upset despite being down four starters.

Therefore, they are a squad that can never be counted out and if they plan to have any hopes of coming away with a big win tomorrow night, they’ll need to perform exceptionally well in each of the following key areas.