Recap: Utah Jazz vs Memphis Grizzlies, how many triple-doubles are too many?

If the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 for suspected tanking in a game that they won, Adam Silver had better be aligning the crosshairs of his catastrophic death laser (every NBA commissioner has had one since Larry O’Brien had his commissioned back in ‘83) directly at the Memphis Grizzlies. If Utah’s tanking was worth half a million dollars, there’s no rationalizing that what the Grizzlies displayed in Salt Lake City Friday night isn’t worthy of capital punishment.

I mean, come on. Memphis played just six players in the Delta Center this fateful evening, none of whom would be recognizable to your father, who has watched every Jazz game since 1992. They wouldn’t be recognizable to the freakiest of basketball freaks, save for maybe Dariq Whitehead, who played at Duke a few seasons ago, but more recently played a team-low 24 minutes before an SLC crowd.

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One could argue that Utah’s response of playing just seven deep on the depth chart is practically just as egregious as their visitors’ transgression, but that argument collapses like a paper cup on its fifth refill when you take into account the point differential; Utah by 46. A 147-101 final in the Delta Center’s season finale.

In what many called the “Tanking Super Bowl” in the hours leading up to tip-off, this end-of-season matchup between the Utah Jazz (22-59, 15th in West) and the Memphis Grizzlies (25-56, 12th in West) should have been entirely irrelevant — and in a lot of ways, it was — but Utah entered this meeting still holding to the hope of snatching the third-best NBA Draft lottery odds away from the Brooklyn Nets. The Grizzlies are fighting for every inch and praying to secure the sixth-worst odds from Dallas, while Utah is in a tug-of-war with the league’s most destitute franchise, hilariously dubbed the Kings. Thank heaven Sacramento messed around and beat Golden State tonight, or else there’d be some real panic in Utah’s front office.

But after the Nets nobly fell upon their swords against Milwaukee, the Jazz remained out of reach of a top-3 selection, even if they didn’t dismantle the unrecognizable…

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Publish date : 2026-04-11 08:28:00

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