Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Possibly the worst ever pre-season game?

Tonight the Utah Jazz face off against their Northwest Division rivals, the Denver Nuggets in the Pepsi Center. This is a game that would usually be pretty interesting to watch. Unfortunately this game has a few things going against it.

First of all, it's in the pre-season, and the major stars (Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko have all been NBA All-Stars, and a guy who isn't, Deron Williams, just won a gold medal a few weeks ago) wouldn't be going at each other has hard. Secondly, there are just so many injuries that there will be stretches of this game where very little basketball will actually be enjoyable to watch.

Memo and Booz will be there though . . .
  Two of these four guys aren't playing tonight . . .

In a nutshell, this game has the potential to be really bad (especially for fans) because Utah and Denver are both so banged up (or slightly injured -- but injured enough not to play). Here are the players who are out for both teams:

Utah Injuries Denver Injuries  
Matt Harpring Out Ankle   Allen Iverson Out/Doubtful Sore Knee
Brevin Knight Out Sprained Left Thumb   Chris Andersen Out Calf
Jarron Collins Out Tendinitis Right Elbow   Steven Hunter Out Knee
Paul Millsap Probable Corneal Abrasion Poked eye   Sonny Weems Out Groin
Andrei Kirilenko Game time decision Sprained right finger   Chucky Atkins Out Knee
Ronnie Price Game time decision Bruised lower right leg   Carmelo Anthony Probable Calves, Finger
Gerry McNamara Game time decision Stomach flu        

For the Jazz I think they can afford to have all of those guys rest save for either Price of McNamara -- we're going to need to have one other PG playing tonight. Can you imagine how interesting it could be to watch Deron Williams be backed up by CJ Miles (as the three other PGs on the team could be out of action)? Or for the Denver fans, how great is it going to be for them to drive to the arena, pay all this money, and then get to watch the Nene and K-Mart show? Thankfully, though, 'Melo looks to play and his Nugget's will have their hands full as the Jazz still run through Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. The Jazz *should* win, but who is going to be able to handle Melo with both Andrei and Matt out?

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