SALT LAKE CITY — It might not be easy for him, but Quin Snyder plans on taking some time to decompress during the All-Star break. He’ll even let his coaches do the same.
Not too much time, though.
The Jazz will be off from Thursday through Tuesday before reconvening Wednesday for their next practice. Utah doesn’t play again until a week from Friday in Milwaukee, where it’s kicking off a three-game road trip.
“We’ll try to get a break. It’s like anything. You can stay up all night working and you’re not as good if you don’t sleep,” Snyder said. “Everybody needs some rest. This isn’t a man-up thing where we’re going to outwork the league. We work hard. We’re not insecure about that. We’ll continue to do that. It’s not summertime.”
Snyder said the coaching staff will take a couple of days to break down how the Jazz fared, leading up to the All-Star break. It will almost be like a working vacation for them.
The hard-working coach added that it’s hard to completely unplug, even though players are off on beaches or vacationing with families.
“You just don’t break away; that’s this job. That’s why people do what they do in the offseason, they kind of refuel. That’s exciting, too, (because) you’re vested in your work,” Snyder said. “You’re absorbed.”
That, he added, is why it’s important to have healthy habits for coaches as well as players.
“You get emotionally and mentally drained, just the way you do physically,” Snyder said. “All-Star break’s a good thing. There’s a reason why the players wanted it to be (a week).”
ROAD, SWEET ROAD: While the Jazz have struggled at home, they enter the All-Star break with a nice 15-11 road record. They were only 19-11 at home before Wednesday’s game against Portland.
Snyder smiled when asked if he’s considered bringing out a tape measure, like in the movie "Hoosiers," to show players the rims are the same height at Vivint Arena as they are elsewhere.
“I like when we win. You can look at it two ways: We’ve been a really good road team, or we’re not a good home team,” Snyder said. “Two years ago, we would’ve been thrilled with our home record being what it is.”
The Jazz went 21-20 at home that season, Snyder’s first as head coach, and were 38-44 overall. Last year, Utah was 24-17 at home and 40-42 overall.
“I don’t think we’d want to play all of our games on the road to get a better record,” Snyder said. “I’d like to control what we can. It’d be great if we just won the rest of our games at home, and then we wouldn’t even have to think about it.”
TIE GAME: Snyder said he’s been asking a lot of questions about the Jazz’s home losses. He even jokingly wondered if players and coaches aren’t getting enough sleep because of how many young kids they have.
“I think everybody likes to be at home,” he said. “We haven’t shot as well at home. Why haven’t we shot as well? You can go down the list and drive yourself crazy.”
At shootaround, Snyder said he even starts questioning what color tie he should wear. He was trying to figure out if his red or blue ties were luckier.
For the record, he wore a blue tie in Utah's 111-88 win over Portland.
Snyder smiled when that was brought up in his postgame interview. He joked, "That's probably the reason (we won), right?"