Jokic Dominates Thin Jazz Frontcourt!

The extremely shorthanded Utah Jazz fell to the Denver Nuggets in Salt Lake City 122-103.

Collin Sexton scored 26 points to lead the Jazz while Keyonte George added 23 points in the loss.

Nikola Jokic had a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double to lead the Nuggets.

Defending Jokic, winner of three of the last four MVP awards was always going to be difficult for the Jazz, but the team’s lengthy injury report didn’t help.

The Jazz entered the game down four of their top five frontcourt players with Lauri Markkanen (personal reasons), John Collins (knee soreness), Taylor Hendricks (fractured fibula), and Kyle Filopowski (leg inflammation) all unavailable.

Then, after seeing the court for just 90 seconds in the first quarter, veteran center Drew Eubanks left the game with a knee contusion and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game.

That left the Jazz with starting center Walker Kessler, and two-way big men Micah Potter and Oscar Tshiebwe — both making their season debuts — to fill the remainder of the minutes on short notice.

“We pulled [Tshiebwe] out of [Salt Lake City] Stars practice midway through practice,” Jazz coach Will Hardy acknowledged. “It wasn’t like this was something he had a ton of time to prepare for, and so there’s some play calls that we’ve put in recently that he hasn’t been exposed to yet.”

Considering the less-than-idea circumstances, the three Jazz bigs played well.

Kessler finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks.

Potter recorded a career-high 16 rebounds to go with nine points and three assists, while Tshiebwe added his own career-highs in rebounds with nine and minutes with 16.

Outside of Hendricks who is out for the season, none of the Jazz’s frontcourt injuries are long-term, but until they get a few bodies back, they’ll be tested by the teams on the immediate horizon.

Daniel Gafford and Derrick Lively will man the paint for the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, before Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers wrap up the Jazz’s five-game homestand on Sunday.

Even if Kessler, Potter, and Tshiebwe continue to punch above their weight, the Jazz will be outmanned until Markkanen and Collins return.

March Lineups In November

Jazz fans have been used to seeing unfamiliar take the court after the trade deadline each of the last two seasons as the team worked to improve its draft positioning.

But with the aforementioned injuries, and the highly sought-after names a the top of the 2025 NBA Draft, those makeshift March lineups are now being played in November.

In addition to Potter and Tshiebwe, Svi Mykhailiuk played a season-high 22 minutes for the Jazz, more than doubling his minutes total through the team’s first 17 games of the season.

Perhaps the biggest knock on the Jazz’s rebuild since trading Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell in 2022 was the team’s unnecessarily high level of success through the first half of each of the last two seasons.

The Jazz were 27-29 by the 2023 trade deadline, and 26-26 in 2024.

That many wins hurt the Jazz’s draft lottery odds and resulted in the team landing the ninth overall pick (Taylor Hendricks), and the 10th overall pick (Cody Williams) in the last 24 months.

Though the Jazz are unlikely to rely heavily on rotations that feature Tshiebwe, Potter, or Myhailiuk again in the near future, it’s a preview of the types of lineups that might be on the floor as the season progresses.

It’s also a reminder that despite the Jazz’s four early-season wins, they’ll be able to protect their place in the standings whenever they see fit to avoid the draft in the middle of the lottery for a third straight year.

Utah Jazz Next Broadcast

The Jazz will face the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. MST. The game will be televised on KJZZ, streamed on Jazz+, and heard on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone.