Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 113-96 loss to the Sacramento Kings from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Welp, Lauri Markkanen is out now

Hits keep coming for jazz.

Just a day after Taylor Hendricks suffered a season-ending leg injury, Lauri Markkanen was sidelined in the second quarter with back spasms. The latter is certainly less severe – Markkanen actually played a few minutes after suffering the initial change. But the injury is another blow to the Jazz, who didn’t have much depth to begin with.

Typically, back spasms are not an injury to worry too much about. HashtagBasketball.com has been tracking injury absences in the NBA since 2010 and has found 55 cases in which a player was sidelined due to back spasms, with an average absence of five days. (Minimum 1, Maximum 26). To be more specific, the lower back spasms that the Jazz diagnosed in Markkanen were observed 25 times during that period, with an average absence of seven days.

Officially, Jazz head coach Will Hardy noted that back problems are usually common and that they would wait to see how Markkanen felt during Thursday’s game.

But with the Jazz in the tank race and a winnable home game against the San Antonio Spurs coming up, it might be wise to sit Markkanen for that game while also being more available on the road trip against better opponents. Heck, you don’t even have to be particularly conspiratorial — it’s just better for Markkanen to be as careful as possible about back spasms, which can be a strange and persistent injury. It’s okay to miss games now. Will you miss games in a potential world where the Jazz are competitive in the playoffs? Fewer.

Without Markkanen, the Jazz started Kyle Filipowski in the second half. Again, John Collins was the more obvious option, but at this point it is clear that Hardy prefers Collins on the bench, meaning he does not play alongside Walker Kessler. If Markkanen is out in future games, I hope they keep Filipowski in the starting lineup – even if that means an incredibly young starting lineup.

2. Changes to the starting lineup

Cody Williams replaced Taylor Hendricks in the starting lineup. As I wrote yesterday, that makes perfect sense as the closest comparison on an equal basis: Williams is one of the few wingers on the team, has the length to defend many different types of players, and won’t use a single player for much of the offense.

But that wasn’t the only change in the starting line-up: Jordan Clarkson replaced Collin Sexton. This was more of a surprise, but here’s what Hardy said about the change:

“Yes, we are trying to improve the functioning of the two groups a little bit and we can do that without compromising the minutes too much or compromising the chances too much. You know, I believe in Collin. Collin knows this has nothing to do with his play. It’s about what makes the two groups work best. I think at the start of the game the first group showed pretty good cohesion offensively. I think I still have some work to do to help Collin with that second group if we continue to do that,” Hardy said.

“But nothing is set in stone with our team at the moment. I had a conversation with Collin before the game about whether we wanted to try something different to see if we could find a little rhythm on offense. And Collins is great. He understands that he wants the team to do well. He has always done anything and everything that I have asked from his role standpoint and therefore it is my responsibility to continue to think about him and to enable him if he wants to accept these things to be successful.”

I kind of see what Hardy is trying to do here: the second unit had been a bust before, so putting the second best player in these lineups should have helped them. However, Sexton had a rough night: 0-7 from the field, -11, three turnovers, just 18 minutes on the field. He had already left the locker room by the time the media arrived, so we didn’t ask him about the change.

However, since he’s your second-best player – and perhaps your best player without Markkanen – he probably deserves a little respect in this situation as well. For many NBA players, that means starting. It might be worth finding the way to best support him, and it’s good that Hardy nodded in that direction too.

3. Keyonte George being nicer to himself

An update on a triple team point from two games ago:

Keyonte George was really, really bad in the first four games of the season. He’s shooting 26% from the field, which is honestly a little difficult. The positive side of this 3-for-13 FG performance tonight was twofold: First, ten of those shots were three-pointers, making lower field percentages more palatable. Second, he collected 11 assists, giving him a double-double.

He was extremely hard on himself because he wanted success as much as anyone else. In general, I like this kind of approach, because far worse is the Talen-Horton-Tucker approach – the unwavering confidence that what you are doing is right despite all evidence to the contrary. But the truth is that the low body language and pressing that George displayed in the first week of the season was also damaging.

So Hardy asked him: How would you treat a teammate who was going through a crisis? Why don’t you treat yourself the same way?

George said the question reframed the way he thought about his own piece – that he realized he needed more support in his own self-talk. I think that was shown in his interview with the media today, which was a nice mix of criticism and forward-thinking and was a step in the right direction.

Of course George has to play better. Much better. But he’s being given an over-the-top spotlight because it’s so early in the season with so much storytelling taking place. A week-long slump in mid-February only attracts less attention and is related to other developments. It’s worth waiting a bit to see if there’s more to come from George this year.

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