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SALT LAKE CITY - The Jazz are playing again, finally. The last game they played was Saturday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Today is Wednesday.
After the first 41 games that were played at a rate comparable to the lockout season, having three days off without a game seems like an eternity.
The Jazz welcome in the Washington Wizards and while that doesn't sound like much (the Wizards are 9-30), Washington has won 5 out of their last 7 games including wins in that stretch over Oklahoma City, Denver, and Portland. The games against the Nuggets and the Blazers were on the road.
I don't know how often I could say this with the Wizards being in town, but I believe it today, this is a dangerous team for a few reasons. First things first they now believe they can win. They have built some confidence with this last stretch and they have a dominant point guard in John Wall. He is not quite 100% from the knee injury and is on a minute-limit, but he is still John Wall.
He is exactly what kills the Jazz, a scoring point guard. The Wizards have had an injury plagued season and Jazz guard Randy Foye knows how good those two players are, "John Wall and Nene, just getting their foundation back, (Wall) really can push the ball, good player, smart player, that's the biggest thing that I see."
"We're getting healthy. We're starting to get guys back that we haven't had the whole first half of the season." said Wizards Head Coach Randy Whitman.
Utah is also familiar with former Denver Nuggets forward Nene. His last game out, he scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. He also had five assists and four steals.
With Wall and Nene, Washington is dangerous. This is also the type of game the Jazz have struggled with in the past.
The Jazz and Wizards tip off at 7 p.m. in EnergySolutions Arena.
