Utah Jazz's Grayson Allen lights it up in his first NBA game with five 3-pointers and 19 points

SALT LAKE CITY — As the only new player who’s expected to play significant minutes this season, Grayson Allen was the one player everyone was watching closely as the Utah Jazz opened their preseason schedule Saturday night with a game against a professional team from Australia called the Perth Wildcats.

No one knew what to expect, including Allen, who said, “I didn’t really have any expectations going into tonight except just to play and get that first preseason game out of the way and get those nerves out and I did.”

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Did he ever.

Allen sank the first five shots he took, including four straight 3-pointers, and by the midpoint of the second quarter, already had 14 points. He cooled off a bit in the second half but still ended up leading all Jazz scorers with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 5 of 9 from long range.

The rookie from Duke said he wasn’t expecting to lead all scorers, but all in all was pleased with his first performance in a Jazz uniform, even if it wasn’t against a real NBA team.

“I was a lot more comfortable after the first three went down,” he said. “It felt good. These guys are really easy to play with. It’s really seamless when you’re jumping in there with a lot of smart basketball players. It makes my job a lot easier.”

Allen entered the game at the 5:11 mark of the first quarter. Just six seconds later, he committed a personal foul, not exactly an auspicious NBA start.

After that, things got much better for the rookie who was taken with the 21st pick in last June’s NBA Draft.

He sank his first shot, a long 3-pointer, then sank another one from the left angle. Early in the second quarter he made a nice running jumper from 15 feet, then hit two more 3-pointers, the latter from the right angle.

He finally missed his first shot midway through the third quarter, soon after entering the game, a 3-pointer from the right corner. He sank one more trey and wasn't afraid to keep shooting when he was open.

Besides finishing with 19 points, Allen also had three rebounds and an assist. His only real negative was a team-high four turnovers on the night, which Allen mentioned after the game as something to improve on.

As for coach Quin Snyder, he was pleased with Allen’s overall performance and said he was very comfortable with the number of shots he took, which ended up being more than any other Jazz player.

“I think with our whole team that’s a been a point of emphasis,” Snyder said. “We want to find good shots, but we want to look for opportunities to take those shots. I think those shots were good shots.”

So does Allen believe he has the green light to shoot 3-pointers for the Jazz this year?

“Yeah I do,” he said with a big grin. “As long as they’re good ones.”