Bad injury luck continues for the Utah Jazz

Yet another injury to a key player is the latest example of bad luck that has rained down upon the Utah Jazz during the 2017-18 NBA season.

Other than the surprisingly dominant start by rookie Donovan Mitchell in Salt Lake City, the No. 1 story of the first half of the season for the Utah Jazz was injuries.

Their inability to stay healthy — most notably with star center Rudy Gobert, who has played in just 18 games this season while dealing with two separate knee injuries — has been the Achilles heel for the Jazz.

Well, the bad luck will continue for the Jazz in the second half of the regular season.

In the midst of holding an 18-26 record, while falling to 10th place in the Western Conference standings and slipping even further behind the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, the injuries have done everything but improve in Utah.

The Jazz, who have lost 15 of their last 20 games following Wednesday’s win over the Sacramento Kings, have dealt with injuries to numerous key players this season. Those players include Gobert, Joe Johnson, Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood, among others. The injuries to Gobert (knees) and Johnson (wrist) are two which resulted in extended absences.

But on Tuesday, Utah added another name to that list: Thabo Sefolosha.

The Jazz announced Tuesday evening that the 33-year-old forward had chosen to undergo right knee surgery to “repair an avulsion of the medial collateral ligament (MCL).”

Sefolosha’s injury occurred on Jan. 12 against the Charlotte Hornets in a loss at Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

The veteran forward left the game against the Hornets with what the team described at the time as a right knee sprain. But four days later, that injury ended up being much worse.

Yahoo! Sports‘ Shams Charania reported the day after the injury occurred that the injury would be season-ending for Sefolosha, which was backed up with the news release by the Jazz on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the team reported that Sefolosha underwent successful surgery to repair the MCL in his right knee, officially ending his season.

The loss to Sefolosha adds to the list of already devastating injuries for Utah this season, which is turning into a long list of players just beyond the midway point of the regular season.

Sefolosha, who is in his 12th professional season and first with the Jazz, was enjoying one of his best years of his career. In 38 games, he averaged 8.2 points (second-best of career), 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals (third-best of career) and 0.9 assists in 21.2 minutes per game.

The forward was also shooting the ball really well for Utah, tallying a 49.2 shooting percentage from the field, while shooting 38.1 percent from 3 and 81.5 percent from the free throw line.

Sefolosha was also an important piece to the Jazz second unit, flipping between the second and third option coming off the bench.

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The 2017-18 NBA regular season has been a disappointing one for Utah so far this season, one that has been filled with bad luck and injuries along the way. And now, that back luck continues in Salt Lake City.