The Utah Jazz’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night in Salt Lake City, whether they win or lose, could be a valuable learning opportunity for the young team.
At least, that’s how one of Will Hardy’s Jazz coaching mentors views the Bucks.
Gregg Popovich, San Antonio’s head coach, praised Giannis Antetokounmpo and his team after their loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday night, 130-94.
By defeating the Boston Celtics, the Jazz (35-37) did the Bucks (52-20) a favor last weekend. In the race to finish first in the Eastern Conference standings, Milwaukee leads the Celtics by 2 1/2 games entering this game.
Milwaukee faces Utah on Friday and the Denver Nuggets, the West’s top seed, on Saturday night, giving them a difficult road trip. In their last 26 games, the Bucks have won 23 of them.
Before Tuesday night’s 127-115 home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah had won four of its previous five games.
The Jazz are still in the running for one of the West’s highly competitive postseason spots.
Joe Ingles, a former Jazz fan favorite who joined the Bucks this season after being traded from Utah to Portland at the trade deadline a year ago, will make his homecoming in Friday’s game.
This will be Ingles’ first real game as a visitor in his former home state of Utah, where the shooting guard spent the first eight NBA seasons. Due to a knee injury, he was unable to participate in Portland’s season last year.
In a reserve role for Milwaukee this season, Ingles is averaging 7.3 points, 3.2 assists, and 3.1 rebounds. He likes where he landed.
Lauri Markkanen, the Jazz’s leading scorer with 25.7 points per game, is in limbo. During the loss on Wednesday, he fell and injured his left wrist, causing him to bruise it. Despite the negative X-rays, the pain persists.
