The Utah Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns on Saturday 119-105 in the first preseason game of the 2020-21 campaign.
The Jazz were playing without Mike Conley and Royce O’Neale, which gave Quin Snyder a chance to see some of the younger fringe players run a little more with the Jazz’s core, and there’s a lot to be excited about with the players at the end of the bench.
But really it was Jordan Clarkson who stole the show on Saturday.
High notes
- There are two things that are very clear about what Clarkson has been told regarding his role with the Jazz — let it fly and run. Not only did Clarkson score 19 points in 22 minutes, including hitting five treys in the first half, but he scored in a wide range of ways, my favorite of which was a turn-around fadeaway 3 that he hit as he was falling out of bounds with 8:38 left in the second quarter as the shot clock expired.
I had nearly forgotten that one of my favorite parts of having Clarkson on the Jazz is that on a nightly basis we get to watch him get millimeters away from losing his handle and then somehow regain control and make a circus play of some sort. I’m going to go ahead and say that he’s the best in the NBA at that very specific thing.
- True to his word, Donovan Mitchell came out of the gate very active on both ends and showed off his offensive prowess, getting exactly what he wanted when he wanted. That’s exactly what you want in the first preseason game from the guy who just signed a max deal. Commitment.
- Derrick Favors’ first touch in his Jazz return came on a pocket pass from Joe Ingles, which Favors laid in with ease.
- Juwan Morgan played a healthy amount of minutes on Saturday and showed a little bit of everything, from hitting 3s to playing with good defensive hands, fighting hard for offensive rebounds and not giving up on plays.
- We got our first look at rookies Udoka Azubuike and Elijah Hughes, and within seconds of being in the game, Azubuike used his length and skill to block a shot. Azubuike plays like he wants to prove he belongs and does it in a way that I really appreciate. He commits to boxing out, puts a leading hand out while he runs back on offense and is not afraid to use all of his size to intimidate the opponent. Fundamentals, ladies and gentlemen.
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Low notes
- There were at least two instances on Saturday when Miye Oni was wide open for a 3 and seemed a little surprised or not ready when he received the ball from a teammate and then shot the ball a little flat. It was like he didn’t completely get his legs underneath him before taking the shot. This could just be first-night jitters, which would be super understandable, but Oni’s ability to knock down shots, especially the corner 3s, is tightly tied to him being able to break into the Jazz’s regular rotation.
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Going forward, it would be really nice to see him prepared and ready to receive that pass and shoot with full motion.
- It was great to see Bojan Bogdanovic back on the court, and there were certainly some flashes of what he’s capable of, but it’s going to take some time for him to get back to the old Bogey we’ve come to know and love. That’s not a bad thing. The guy hadn’t shot a live-game 3-pointer since March and is just coming off wrist surgery on his shooting hand. He went 2-of-6 from deep against the Suns. He’ll get there.
Flat notes
- Before the game, Suns coach Monty Williams made a point to say that the preseason is no time to mess around because Phoenix is still a team that needs to earn respect around the league. Well, it’s kind of hard to really take the Suns seriously when Chris Paul, Jae Crowder and Dario Saric aren’t playing.
- Preseason games aren’t really the place to judge the defensive abilities of an NBA team. Rotations are all over the place, a certain percentage of players aren’t going to give it everything they have because it truly doesn’t count, and half the game is basically a G League contest, so we’ll have to wait and see where the Jazz are on that end of the floor.