The Utah Jazz entered their final game of the regular season against the LA Lakers on Friday night short-handed, with eight players ruled out and Kyle Filipowski missing a second straight game because of a back injury.
Filipowski has been one of Utah’s more productive young players this season, appearing in 77 games while averaging 11.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in just over 23 minutes per game. He shot 49.2% from the field and 32.5% from three, numbers that made his absence noticeable even in a season that had already turned toward development.
Elijah Harkless was also ruled out with a lingering hamstring injury after dealing with it for the past couple of weeks. Ace Bailey will be active to complete his first-year campaign, while Cody Williams and Brice Sensabaugh are expected to see minutes as Utah closes out the year.
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The injury list fit the pattern of the past several weeks, when the Jazz report rarely brought major surprises. But the timing still mattered Friday because both teams went into the finale with key absences, and the Lakers were also managing their own uncertainty with LeBron James and Jaxson Hayes listed as questionable.
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That leaves the final night of the regular season less about seeding drama than about survival, with Utah using one last game to sort out who can finish and who cannot. For the Jazz, the larger story is no longer the result against the Lakers, but which young players can take the floor and carry something useful into next season.