Utah went into Thursday night’s grizzlies vs jazz matchup with eight players on its injury report and a season’s worth of wear showing in plain sight. The Jazz were preparing for their second-to-last game of the 2025-26 regular season, and their last home outing of the year, against a Memphis team that was dealing with the same kind of damage.
The total number of players listed by both teams reached 22, a staggering count for a game this late in the schedule. Utah ruled out Isaiah Collier with a hamstring injury, Kyle Filipowski with a back injury, Keyonte George with a hamstring injury, Walker Kessler with a shoulder injury, Lauri Markkanen with a hip injury, Jusuf Nurkic with a nose injury and Brice Sensabaugh for rest. Elijah Harkless was listed as questionable with a hamstring injury after missing the past couple of weeks.
Sensabaugh’s absence carried the most weight for Utah’s offense. Over 21 games after the All-Star break, he averaged 20.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists while playing 28 minutes a night, and he shot 40.4% from three over that stretch. For a Jazz team heading into its final home game, that production had become one of the clearest signs of what they had left in the rotation.
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There was also a small piece of better news for Utah. Ace Bailey, the fifth-overall pick, was expected to be healthy and back against Memphis after missing the previous game against the New Orleans Pelicans with a knee injury. That return gave the Jazz at least one fresh body for a night when availability had become the story.
The injury report told the larger truth about late April basketball. This was not just a matter of one team being short-handed; it was both sides staggering into the finish line, with the Jazz closing the book on their home schedule while Memphis arrived with its own list of unavailable players. The volume of absences left little room for anything but survival.
What happens next is simple enough: Utah finishes out the final two games of the regular season, and this one marks the last time Jazz fans see the team at home until next year. By the time the night is over, the injury report will have mattered as much as the score.
