The Utah Jazz will take on the Charlotte Hornets tonight in another major tanking game for Utah. After an excrutiating exciting win against the Dallas Mavericks, the Jazz are back to creeping towards losing their pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. A loss tonight to the Charlotte Hornets would go a long way to helping them keep their pick. It’s a precarious position the Jazz are in now, and they can’t afford to be playing with fire anymore. Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen are having impressive seasons, but the team has not won at a level that would make losing their pick defensible. At this point, the biggest success for Utah for this season will be putting themselves at the 4-spot in the lottery odds. If they do that, then we can all rest easy knowing that Utah will add one more high-level pick to this core and can go all out next season.
It looks like the Utah Jazz will be without Ace Bailey and Lauri Markkanen. Jusuf Nurkic is also questionable, meaning he may or may not play. To be safe, I think Utah needs to do whatever helps them lose this game.
According to the NBA Injury Report, It looks like Ryan Kalkbrenner is probable to play as well as Tidjane Salaun (who is having a solid second season for the Hornets).
Who: Utah Jazz vs Charlotte Hornets
When: Saturday, January 10th, 2026 – 7:30 PM ET
Where: Delta Center, Salt Lake City, UT
