There was plenty of weirdness within the confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena on Saturday night — the plexiglass shield behind the players’ socially-distanced seats; the stands being populated by just a couple hundred mask-wearing relatives of team and organizational employees; piped-in crowd noise; coaches in polos and sneakers instead of suits.
And yet, there were also plenty of familiar sights, too: Donovan Mitchell pushing the pace in transition; Rudy Gobert dissuading would-be paint interlopers from going to the rim; Bojan Bogdanovic letting fly 3-pointers with zero hesitation; Derrick Favors, donning a No. 15 Utah Jazz jersey, scoring off of pocket passes from Joe Ingles.
In the first NBA game to take place at the Viv since March 9 (two days before the league was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic), the Jazz opened their 2020-21 preseason slate against the Phoenix Suns with a 119-105 victory.
Even in a truncated run-up to a compacted season, Saturday’s result didn’t count for a ton — Mike Conley and Royce O’Neale both sat out due to “rest” (which had more to do with their recent stints in the league’s COVID-19 protocols), and none of Mitchell, Gobert, Bogdanovic or Ingles took the court after halftime. Two of Phoenix’s key offseason additions, Chris Paul and Jae Crowder, did not play at all.
And yet, the game taking place at all counted for a lot.
After the league completed its 2019-20 campaign with 22 teams taking part in the restart in the Orlando bubble, no such set-up is really feasible for the entirety of this season. And so it is that teams will host games, and travel, and hope that their sojourns into hotels and arenas with fans don’t impact their health and availability too deleteriously.
On Saturday night, though, even amidst all the weirdness, it was enough that there was professional basketball being played.
“The circumstances are unique. A lot of people have done a lot of work to allow us this opportunity,” coach Quin Snyder said afterward. “… But when you get on the floor, it’s all worth it. It’s great for Jazz fans to have a chance to watch basketball here. Everybody’s excited about the opportunity to play, and appreciative that we get to do this when there’s still a lot of people are hurting in our country right now.”
As for how it went on the floor … well, even in a pretty meaningless game, there were moments worth paying attention to.
For starters, the Jazz’s opening offensive possession saw Bogdanovic — freshly returned from offseason wrist surgery — post up on the left block, bringing to fruition Snyder’s admonition that the team would utilize him more inside this season.
JAZZ 119, SUNS 105
• In the first NBA game at Vivint Arena since March 9, Jordan Clarkson scores 19 points off the Jazz bench to give them a win in their preseason opener.
• Nigel Williams-Goss scores nine of his 15 points consecutively in the third quarter to stop a Phoenix run.
• Mike Conley, Royce O’Neale, and injured newcomer Shaq Harrison sit out for the Jazz, while Chris Paul, Jae Crowder and Dario Saric are no-gos for the Suns.
The Croatian sharpshooter got off a slow start, hitting just 1 of 5 shots at the outset and undoubtedly evoking memories of his rough preseason a year ago, but settled in nicely after that, making 3 of 5 thereafter, including a pair of treys.
He admitted to being both eager and anxious for his first game back.
“It felt good, but kind of strange. It was the first time in my life I went this long without playing — even a pick-up game,” Bogdanovic said. “I was excited to play, just to get that good feeling.”
His coach liked what he saw, too.
“With him, I don’t care if the ball goes in or not, I just want him taking the right shots. And for him, almost every shot is the right shot,” Snyder said.
Meanwhile, Mitchell frequently directed traffic, negotiating in and out of the Phoenix defense with rapid-fire dribbles — followed either by whipping a one-handed pass to a teammate or aggressively hunting his own shot (he finished with 12 points and four assists in 17 minutes).
The much-maligned perimeter defense remains a work in progress — with Suns All-Star Devin Booker drawing a pair of fouls on Ingles within the first 65 seconds of game time, and replacement defender Miye Oni having moments both good and bad in trying to prevent him from penetrating.
“I didn’t want him getting to get into the line, I didn’t want to get a rhythm that way — he kind of had a rhythm early, so I wanted to take him out of that, force him into tough contested midrange, don’t let him get any walk-up 3s, don’t let him get his crossover, don’t let him draw fouls,” Oni said.
Gobert proved as intimidating as ever on the interior, while Favors proved to be the steady upgrade behind him the team’s front office had sought.
Sixth man Jordan Clarkson was his dizzyingly dynamic self — on one sequence curling around a screen on an out-of-bounds play to hit a fading, contortionist 3-pointer in the corner to beat the shot clock, then, on the next trip down the court, accelerating into the paint, rising midair to do a 360-degree turn, then awkwardly clanking a no-chance shot hard off the backboard. (He nevertheless finished with 19 points thanks to going 5 of 10 from deep.)
As for the newbies and end-of-bench types, first-round draft pick Udoka Azubuike generated some early buzz when, on his first defensive play, he utilized his length and athleticism to improbably close the gap on a Suns jump shooter to get a piece of the ball. And second-year point guard Nigel Williams-Goss single-handedly staved off a third-quarter Phoenix run, at one point dropping in nine consecutive points. And big man Juwan Morgan drilled 3 of 4 tries behind the arc in totaling 11 points and seven boards.
All in all, there were reasons for optimism, but also room for improvement.
“I think overall we did a good job. We gave up a few offensive rebounds in the first quarter and we cleaned that up pretty well in the second quarter. The main thing for us is to keep communicating and make sure that we’re able to put some pressure on the ball, and then it makes it easier for me back there to do what I do,” Gobert said. “I love what we’ve been doing in practice, and we know we haven’t reached the level that we can reach, but we will.”
