Jazz wing Joe Ingles walked the ball up the floor with less than three minutes to play and splashed a 27-foot, 3-point bomb to seal Utah’s 124-115 win over Memphis on Wednesday afternoon.

Grizzlies wing Kyle Anderson spun around and shook his head. 

It was their fourth straight loss since the NBA restart, but even that was not the most discouraging sight in the latest bubble defeat – it was Jaren Jackson Jr., a pillar of the organization’s rebuild, watching from the bench in a polo shirt, with a torn meniscus in his left knee.

He’s the third Grizzly to get injured in Orlando, along with key rotation players Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow. 

“I would have hoped we played better and we didn’t get hurt,” Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said about his team’s start to the seeding games. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Jaren Jackson Jr. to miss rest of season with meniscus tear

After a string of losses that has diminished the team’s lead for the No. 8 seed, where can Memphis look if not forward?

“I think (Jackson’s diagnosis) was a surprise for him and a surprise for all of us,” Jenkins said before the game. “I think we were all hoping it wouldn’t require season-ending steps.”

Unfortunately, Jackson won’t return, and there’s no timetable for his recovery. So the new challenge, as Jenkins noted, was to find a way to win despite the mental blow of losing the team’s best shooter.

Utah was the first of five straight playoff teams Memphis will take on to close the regular season. 

“We are going out and playing with what we have,” point guard Ja Morant said. “We have a lot of guys on this team capable of making plays and helping us. That’s just how we’re taking it.”

But those guys came up a little short Wednesday. 

For the first time since the NBA restarted in Orlando, the Grizzlies didn’t trail after the first quarter. After falling behind 8-2 in the opening minutes, they fought back behind a much more aggressive effort from Morant. 

The rookie, who tweeted following Monday’s loss to the Pelicans that he was going to face adversity with a smile, dropped in six points in the first segment and had five assists. Every Grizzlies player to enter the game in the first quarter scored at least one bucket, a credit to the point guard’s vision.

Even with Morant on the bench for nearly six minutes of the second quarter, they extended their lead over Utah to as many as 13. Dillon Brooks — never afraid to let it fly — fired up 11 shots in the first half and scored 20 points.

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It was a surprising shift in momentum. Prior to Wednesday, Brooks was shooting just 18-for-49 (36%) since the NBA’s restart. He went on to finish with a team-high 23 points.

But the boost didn’t last for long.

“When my number is called, I try to do the best I can,” he said. “When my number’s not called, I gotta do it on defense and make the unselfish play, but I had it it going. I should have done more in the second half.”

The Jazz roared back in the final minutes of the second quarter with a 22-1 run and took a nine-point lead into the break. Donovan Mitchell, Utah’s leading scorer, found a rhythm during that stretch and scored 18.

Despite the outburst, the scrappy Grizzlies found a way to stick around.

Utah took a one-point lead into the final 12 minutes, but outpaced Memphis the rest of the way with timely 3-point makes. The Jazz made seven more shots from beyond the arc than the Grizzlies, including six by Ingles, who finished two points shy of his career high (27).

“The Jazz got hot,” Jenkins said. “It was a one-point game going into the fourth quarter, I thought our guys competed for a great portion of this game. We’re just missing some shots at the end of the game, and they made some great plays.”

Morant scored 20 points with nine assists for Memphis. Grizzlies guard Grayson Allen also scored 20 to set a career high.

“I feel like we battled tonight, besides that run at the end of the second (quarter),” Morant said. “If we fix that, I feel like we could have come up with a win. We rallied to make it close in the second half, but they made some big shots to close the game.”

Memphis is now one game ahead of Portland and two games ahead of San Antonio for eighth in the West. The Grizzlies started the seeding games with a 3.5-game lead. 

“We have to dig a little deeper and guys gotta look in the mirror and say, ‘What can I do better? What can I focus on? What details do I need to improve on as I watch film?’ ” Brooks said. “We are making minor mistakes and they are costing us big. Guys gotta realize that, even though we are a young team. ... We gotta grind it out. Just like everyone says, it’s hard to get to the playoffs. You see that right now.”