The last time Joe Ingles missed a game for the Utah Jazz, Quin Snyder was in just his second season leading the team, Gordon Hayward was the squad’s leading scorer and that Dec. 16, 2015 night saw Ryan Anderson lead the New Orleans Pelicans to a 104-94 win in Salt Lake City.
Yes, it’s been more than five years since Ingles didn’t play in a game for the Jazz, but it’s a run that ended Friday night as he missed Utah’s road contest against the Milwaukee Bucks because of soreness in his right Achilles tendon.
In all, Ingles played in 418 straight contests and held the record among active NBA players for most consecutive games played by a wide margin.
In the era of load management, Ingles took pride in his streak, but also just matter-of-factly felt it was his duty to do his job.
Said Snyder on Friday before the game: “There’s been a lot of times that he’s played through pain and probably injury that he hasn’t told us about at times. ... But as much as anything, it makes you pause for a second and you reflect on what a streak of consecutive games like that means and what it says about Joe, his toughness, his commitment, the type of teammate he is, and you pause and reflect for a second and you understand why you respect him like you do.”
Friday, the Jazz were without a key reserve who has averaged exactly 10 points and four rebounds to go along with 3.4 assists in 26.3 minutes per game on the young season.
“Obviously you miss a player in the short run like Joe, but he will be back and he’s just got to get healthy and we try to do what we can do to make up for not having him,” Snyder said.
Friday was also a personally significant day for Ingles and the rest of his family, as it was the second anniversary of the day his son Jacob was diagnosed with autism, an experience he and his wife Renae have been very open about.
After tweeting about it early Friday, Ingles spent much of the early part of the day replying to various responses he received.