We thought it was a real privilege to have this opportunityI thought our guys battled hard against some tremendous athletes. – Andrew Gaze
SALT LAKE CITY — At the end of his pregame media session Monday night at Vivint Arena, Sydney Kings head coach Andrew Gaze exclaimed that he wished for those present to have sympathy for his team as they faced the Utah Jazz in an exhibition contest.
After an up-and-down game that saw his team ultimately fall to the Jazz 108-83, Gaze expressed gratitude for the opportunity his club had to play Utah, as well as optimism for the upcoming season in Australia's National Basketball League.
"We thought it was a real privilege to have this opportunity," he said. "I thought our guys battled hard against some tremendous athletes."
It's that athleticism, as well as the Jazz's size (particularly Rudy Gobert), that Gaze felt was the biggest difference in the contest in which his team cut a 19-point deficit after the first quarter to as little as eight in the third before faltering down the stretch.
"I'm really proud of the way the guys battled and stayed with it after a real nervous, shaky start," he said. "We hung in there. Would've liked to have been a little bit more competitive, but at the end of the day it's probably a reflection of where we're at and where they're at and hopefully they got some value out of it as well."
On a positive note, Gaze was happy with his team's offensive execution in the halfcourt, particularly in the second quarter as the Kings scored 31 points compared to just 23 for the Jazz.
Moving forward, Gaze is hopeful that his squad learned from some of the things Utah did on both ends of the floor and apply it to their competition, particularly the way the Jazz applied pressure on defense.
"They'd clearly done enough homework to know what we try to do, taking a lot of our stuff away from us," Gaze said. "How we can do the same as what they did defensively back home against similar athleticism is the biggest message we got out of this."