The Utah Jazz put on an outright demolition job on the Memphis Grizzlies to advance to the second round. But it wasn't without cost, as Mike Conley Jr. tweaked his lingering hamstring injury.
The Jazz won by a final margin of 126-110, but the game was actually much less competitive than that. Utah led by more than 30 points for long stretches of the ball game. When Conley exited the contest in the second quarter, his team was already up big, which gave him little incentive to get back out there and potentially aggravate it further. However, he still admitted he was “frustrated” as he awaits an MRI result from Thursday morning. (via The Salt Lake Tribune's Alex Vejar)
“It’s something that I’ve worked tirelessly — kind of night and day — on and put a lot of effort into it,” Conley said. “Showing up early, staying late, strengthening, running, conditioning, everything. It’s just one of those things. You don’t know when it’ll happen or why it happens. It just does.”
“For me it’s never been like a true hamstring pull where it just knocks you out,” claimed the Jazz star. “It’s just like a small tweak that’s just enough to cause discomfort and worry some folks.”
This same hamstring injury knocked Conley out of over 20 games during the regular season. With the Jazz guard playing such a vital role in their plan of attack and as a secondary ball-handler beside Donovan Mitchell, it becomes crucial that they ease him in as slowly as possible.
“My mindset is I’m going to be ready to play,” the Jazz veteran said. “That’s kind of the visual I put in front of myself. I’m going to be ready. But at the same time, we’re going to see what happens in the next few days and be smart about how we approach it going into this next series.”
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