The Utah Grizzlies thought they'd healed their wounds in the latter half of their recent homestand, but Monday's 4-3 loss to Houston sent them out of town for tonight's one-game road trip to Veterans' Coliseum needing more tuning.
Used to be, the Roadrunners were the kind of team you could count on to give you a good tuneup practice. But since Rob Laird took over as coach Dec. 6, this last-place team is 11-9-3 and won its last two games against the Grizzlies. In January, the 'Runners have gone 6-4-1. Considering their season mark is 15-27-7, that's substantial improvement and not good news for the Grizz.Utah (26-24-3--55) not only plays at Phoenix tonight, it comes home to face the Roadrunners in the Delta Center Friday night to start a three-game mini-homestand that includes a Saturday game with Long Beach and Feb. 4 game with Indianapolis. After that, the Grizz don't play at home again until the last day of February, the 28th. Utah has won four of its last five, Phoenix one of its last three.