The first Jazz win of the not-tanking era came on a college floor in Boulder, in front of 7,860 people, against a Nuggets team that let Nikola Jokić take exactly one shot. Utah won 109-97, led for 88% of the game, and pushed the lead to 18.
None of that counts. It's preseason. But one reaction from the r/UtahJazz postgame thread sums up the mood better than anything we could write:
"We won by a lot and didn't even look that great! Things are happening!!!"
That's the right frame. The team's own takeaways are worth a read, but a preseason box score mostly measures who stayed in the game the longest. So instead of a recap, here's what we think was real and what we think was noise.
First, who actually played
The main guys played roughly a half. Here's Hardy's first starting five of the season and how long each one was out there:
| Starter | Min | Pts | Line | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyonte George | 21 | 15 | 5-8 FG, 4 reb, 3 ast | +6 |
| Darryn Peterson | 19 | 3 | 1-5 FG, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl | -2 |
| Jaren Jackson Jr. | 18 | 11 | 4-7 FG, 4 reb | +4 |
| Lauri Markkanen | 14 | 17 | 5-12 FG, 3-7 3PT | +11 |
| Jusuf Nurkić | 11 | 4 | 5 reb, 4 ast | +3 |
Box score via NBA.com.
That's about 84 of 240 minutes from the starters. Sixteen Jazz players got in. Brice Sensabaugh (hip), Kyle Filipowski (back), and Josh Green (knee) sat, so the bench was missing two of its most important pieces.
Denver's side was even thinner. Jamal Murray sat for personal reasons, so Tyus Jones started. Per Denver Stiffs, the Nuggets' starters played the first half only. Jokić finished with 3 points on one shot, 7 assists, and no turnovers in 15 minutes. DeMar DeRozan played 10 minutes in his Nuggets debut.
So: Jazz starters against Nuggets starters for about a quarter and a half, then a lot of guys fighting for roster spots. Read everything below with that in mind.
Signal: Lauri and JJJ looked like the plan
Markkanen and Jackson combined for 28 points in 32 minutes, and both scored from three and at the rim. This is the pairing the whole season depends on, and it's the one thing we wanted to see more than anything. Hardy liked it too:
"Both of them were picking their spots really well and recognizing opportunities to attack versus when to move it. When they play together, it's a matchup problem. It's all a work in progress."
SLC Dunk's Calvin Barrett went further on Lauri, calling the 17 points in about a quarter's worth of minutes "nothing short of vintage." Jackson also told reporters the two are in constant communication on and off the floor, which matters more than the points. They've barely played together.
One fan watching the game made the case for the big lineup:
"Utah's biggest threat is gonna be that JJJ, Lauri, Nurkic lineup. Nuggets struggled to guard those three all game."
Our take: it's 14 and 18 minutes against a Denver team in first-week mode. But the shape of it was right. The Jazz attacked mismatches instead of running plays for whoever was hot, and that's the identity Hardy has been describing since media day.
Signal: Keyonte George's season wasn't a fluke
George took a shot to the mouth in the second quarter, went to the locker room, came back in the third, and finished with 15 points on eight shots. He got to the line five times and played like the guy running the team, not the guy trying to prove he deserves to.
Barrett said he's "running the show like a veteran point guard" and floated him as a possible All-Star nominee. A fan put it simpler:
"Keyonte's season was not a fluke, the game looks so easy for him!"
He also looked engaged on the defensive end, which is the part we said at media day actually matters for a guard on a $157.5 million deal.
Noise (mostly): Darryn Peterson's 1-for-5
Here's the line everyone will look at: 3 points, 1-of-5, 0-of-2 from three, two turnovers. The No. 2 pick started at shooting guard ahead of Ace Bailey and was quiet.
But the rest of the line is better than the shooting: six rebounds, two assists, a steal, and he wasn't forcing anything. The Salt Lake Tribune's Shreyas Laddha called it an "up-and-down debut" with expected growing pains. SLC Dunk said he "looked mostly just tentative and got more comfortable as the game went on."
Fans were split, but most landed where we did:
"Darryn was a team player today. He tried passing too much, hopefully on Tuesday he attempts more shots."
"First preseason game. Let's give him AT LEAST 30-40 games before drawing any conclusions."
One sharp observation from the fan game breakdown thread: Denver kept a body on Peterson all night and tried to attack him on switches, which is what good teams will do to a 19-year-old.
Our take: the deferring is fine for game one. Peterson spent camp playing roughly 60% of his time off the ball, and he's been told the veterans run this offense. What we want Tuesday is one or two possessions where he decides to be the No. 2 pick. Judge him by February, not October. We said it before and we'll keep saying it.
Signal: Ace Bailey is going to make this lineup decision hard
Bailey came off the bench and was, by most accounts, the most fun player on the floor: 10 points on 5-of-10, five rebounds, a steal, a block, a dunk the Jazz social team immediately named after him, and a +11 in 20 minutes, tied with Markkanen and Mykhailiuk for the team best. Laddha called him "perhaps the most exciting Jazz player to watch."
The 10-to-12 pounds of muscle he talked about at media day showed up. Fans noticed:
"Ace looked like a completely different player out there, that extra weight is doing wonders for his confidence in the paint."
"If I could buy stock in Ace then I would."
Naturally, the "should Ace start?" debate was going before the final buzzer. Our take: no, not yet, and that's not a knock on him. Lauri and JJJ start, Keyonte starts, and someone between Ace and Peterson comes off the bench. Bailey as the first guy off the bench, playing starter's minutes with the second unit, is a weapon. As one fan put it: "Bailey off the bench sounds pretty scary." Hardy told us at media day that opening night isn't "a declaration to the world." If Peterson struggles for a month and Ace keeps playing like this, it'll sort itself out.
Signal: The bench can actually play
The best sign for an 82-game season was the second unit. With Sensabaugh and Filipowski out, Hardy went to Bailey, Svi Mykhailiuk, Isaiah Collier, Jaxson Hayes, and Josh Okogie, and they pushed the lead out.
- Isaiah Collier: 9 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3-of-4 shooting, 2-of-3 from three, and zero turnovers in 15 minutes. If the three is real, he's a different player. Hardy: "Those guys both know they have a ton of responsibility to create offense for our group."
- Svi Mykhailiuk: three threes in his first nine minutes.
- Jaxson Hayes: three blocks and four assists. Hardy said in camp he's "had some really good moments protecting the rim."
- Blake Hinson: 14 points on 4-of-5 from deep, plus four offensive rebounds. He's fighting for the last roster spot, and his postgame interview made the rounds for how badly he wants it. Fan verdict: "I'm fully convinced he's a top 10 open shooter on planet earth."
As a team, the Jazz had 28 assists on 39 buckets and only 10 turnovers. That last number is the one Hardy was happiest about:
"It was a good first effort for our group. The ball moved great, and the part I'm happiest about is the 10 turnovers. Defensively, when we got back, it was pretty good in the halfcourt."
Our take: "When we got back" is doing a lot of work in that quote, which brings us to the part we didn't like.
The worry: that first quarter on defense
The fans who watched closest weren't fooled by the final score. From the postgame thread:
"Our defense looked atrocious at times, especially in the first quarter. We were always scrambling, and Denver got open three pointers at will."
"For as bad as the defense looks, Denver didn't hit 100 lol."
The reply to that second one is the honest answer: Jokić took one shot. Denver shot 11-of-39 from three, and a lot of those were open looks that a real Nuggets team with Murray makes. Nurkić's defense took heat in the game thread, and players lost assignments early.
Our take: this is the one we'd circle. The season preview said the defense is the whole season. One preseason game proves nothing, but the first-quarter version of this team gets hunted by good offenses. The second unit was better on that end than the starters, and that's worth watching.
What Denver saw
We went looking for the other side's takes, and the short version is they mostly didn't care about the score. This was a camp-closing showcase on a college campus, and they treated it that way.
DNVR's Brendan Vogt summed up the Nuggets' night in one line:
"If they were there to see a win, they left disappointed; if they were there to see Nikola Jokić bend physics to his will, they left satisfied."
That's about the cross-court, behind-the-back, no-look pass Jokić threw to Cam Johnson for a corner three in the first quarter. It was the most-shared clip of the night across the whole NBA. Coach David Adelman, per Mile High Sports: "He's just 1-of-1 that can make that pass." Draft analyst Sam Vecenie, via Yahoo Sports: "We're not even 24 hours into the NBA preseason, and Nikola Jokić has broken my brain."
The Jazz defender on that play? Lauri Markkanen. Nothing he could do. We'll let it go.
Beyond that, Denver's writers were focused on their own guys. SI's Nuggets site had Tyus Jones and rookie Trevon Brazile as winners and was relieved that Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, and Cam Johnson all looked healthy. Denver Stiffs said "Denver's starters looked good." The Jazz barely came up.
Our take: that's useful. The Nuggets weren't trying to win this game, so the 12-point margin means nothing. But Denver's starters were a combined -44 in their minutes, mostly against Utah's starters. Even in first-week mode, the Jazz top five handled a Jokić-led group. That's not nothing.
What we're watching Tuesday
Same opponent, Tuesday night at the Delta Center (7 p.m. MT, Jazz+). The home crowd gets its first look.
- Sensabaugh, Filipowski, and Green. If they're back, the rotation gets crowded fast, and Hinson's minutes become a real question.
- Peterson being aggressive. Not more makes. More decisions.
- The first six minutes on defense. Starters against starters, before the subs come in.
- Does Ace start? We'd bet no. We'd also bet the question doesn't go away.
It's one preseason game. But for the first time in four years, it was one preseason game where everyone was trying to win, and fans got to enjoy it without doing lottery math. Another fan said it best:
"I'm so glad we're back to trying to win."
Same. Take note.
Sources: Utah Jazz / NBA.com, Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, SLC Dunk via Yahoo Sports, KSL Sports, Denver Stiffs, Mile High Sports, DNVR, SI Nuggets, and the r/UtahJazz game and postgame threads. Box score via NBA.com.