The Utah Jazz made the decision to sit their regular starters due to injury and rest in Friday’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and that apparently hasn’t sat well with some of their Western Conference rivals.
Utah’s decision was particularly beneficial to the Spurs, who are chasing the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The teams competing with them are apparently less than thrilled with how the Jazz handled things.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Spurs’ rivals for the eighth spot were “somewhere between displeased and livid” the Jazz sat starters in the game.
Utah broke no rules, as Wojnarowski notes. Four starters were injured, and those injuries were properly documented. In addition, the decision to rest Rudy Gobert was in full compliance with NBA rules. This is more an optics issue than anything else, but it’s understandable why teams would be angry given the advantage the Spurs got a result. They’ll likely be even more angry if Utah does something similar in the team’s next meeting with San Antonio on Thursday, which the Jazz have good reasons to do.
The Spurs are now lurking in tenth in the West, one game behind ninth-placed Portland and two behind the Memphis Grizzlies in eighth.
