A scene from Wednesday morning’s Jazz shootaround:
Reporter: “There’s a lot of teams in the West that are scuffling right now. Do you guys try to keep track of that?”
Thabo Sefolosha: “What does ‘scuffle’ mean?”
Reporter: “A nicer word for struggling, or not winning quite winning the way they’re expected to be. Do you keep an eye on the Western conference this early?”
Sefolosha: “A little bit, but, you know. We’re scuffling.”
Bulls at Jazz<br>When • Wednesday, 7 p.m.<br>TV • ATTSN
The Jazz (7-11) are indeed scuffling, coming off their first big road trip having gone 1-3 and winning only two of their last 10 games. But ahead of Thanksgiving, the Jazz at least have the blessing of being home — and preparing to face off against the worst team in the NBA.
The Chicago Bulls (3-12) are closer to gunning for a No. 1 draft pick than being actually competitive after shipping off their biggest names this offseason. “Scuffling” might be too generous when describing their play this year.
But Quin Snyder said he’s not getting too comfortable — the Bulls have been at least close in their last few games, and beat Charlotte three games ago.
“We’ve got to be ready to go tonight — it’s a little bit of a challenging game,” Snyder said. “It’s a good team, they’ll be ready to play. They were in position to win last night.”
The Bulls are playing the second game of a road-back-to-back after falling to the Lakers by nine points on Tuesday. The team has precious few bright spots, but one of them is Lauri Markkanen, a Finnish-born forward who was the 7th pick of the draft. Billed at 7 feet tall but also shooting better than 35 percent from 3-point range, Markkanen is seen as a potential prototypical power forward of the future: long, but able to stretch the floor with shooting. He’s averaging slightly more points (15.4 ppg) than Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell (14.9 ppg).
Markkanen is playing at a position where the Jazz are lacking depth: With Rudy Gobert out, Derrick Favors is nearly a full-time center, leaving four-man duties to Jonas Jerebko and Thabo Sefolosha (since Joe Johnson will miss at least another week).
Sefolosha admitted that he’s playing much more power forward than expected when he first signed, having to guard the likes of 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis. But he’s up for the challenge against the team that first drafted him into the league.
“It’s a learning process for me,” he said. “I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying being on the court and seeing different things and try to keep improving.”
