After missing Perth rout with leg injury, homegrown Utah Jazz star Joe Ingles in doubt for Adelaide 36ers clash
UTAH star Joe Ingles is in some doubt for Saturday’s clash with his home-town team after missing the weekend’s smashing of Perth with a leg injury as the Adelaide 36ers jet off for their historic clash.
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UTAH star Joe Ingles is in some doubt for Saturday’s clash with his hometown team the Adelaide 36ers after missing the weekend’s smashing of Perth with a leg injury.
The Jazz took no risks with the 30-year-old who reported heel and Achilles soreness before the game and his absence had no impact on the result as Utah trounced the Wildcats 130-72 at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
“My heel and achilles have been a bit 50/50 so it’s obviously disappointing (missing the game against Perth) but I also can’t risk the regular season later on and having it linger around,” Ingles told reporters before the game.
“I couldn’t tell you how close I was to playing, but depending on different situations maybe, but it’s very early on for us, this is our first game of pre-season and we’re just not willing to risk it at this time of year.”
Asked whether an NBL team had a chance of upsetting one of their NBA rivals this week, Ingles said the Jazz was treating it like any other game.
“Do you want a political answer or the real answer?” he said.
“We’re taking it as serious as we would for another game. We watched film exactly like we did when we played Houston in the play-offs.
“Being from Australia and knowing the league and the players and some of the imports we know how good those teams are, I don’t know if they’ll beat any of our teams, but the way they compete it doesn’t really matter what the scoreboard is, I know it’s good for us to play the same way for 48 minutes.
“I’d love to see a team get a win, not against the Jazz but hopefully one of them will sneak a win.”
Ingles is coming off a career-best year when he broke the Utah record for the most three-pointers in a season as the Jazz beat Oklahoma City in the first-round of the play-offs before falling to Houston 4-1 in the conference semi-finals.
The 30-year-old said he would continue to play multiple roles within the team this season.
“I don’t think my role here is to be a shooter, or a defender, or pick and roll, each game is different and I think the last couple of years I’ve felt that early in the game,” he said.
“Sometimes Donovan (Mitchell) will be rolling and it’s my job to stay in the corner and shoot threes, and sometimes defence will be good and I’ll be handling the ball a bit more, so whatever that role is hopefully I’m more consistent from the start.
“Last season I think I picked it up a bit after the trade deadline and towards the end of the year, so from the start just to be aggressive and help the team in whatever way I can.”
The 36ers flew out of Adelaide en route for Salt Lake City on Monday morning.
In a major win for Adelaide basketball fans, the game will be shown live on Channel Nine’s Go from 10.30am on Saturday after initially being snubbed from the ESPN broadcast because of a scheduling clash.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
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