Our preview asked one thing of Friday's preseason finale: could the Jazz's starting five hold up against Phoenix's real first unit? We said the answer would show up on the defensive glass before anywhere else. It showed up there, and it was mostly no. The Suns grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. The Jazz won 119-116 anyway, because the bench took the fourth quarter 29-21.
Grade us straight. Our pick was Suns 114, Jazz 108, so we missed the winner. Phoenix did play its starters, as expected, and our line of at least 14 Suns offensive rebounds cleared with room to spare. The foul trouble we flagged came right on cue: Jaren Jackson Jr. finished with five fouls in 20:59 and Jaxson Hayes with four. The miss that stings is the fourth quarter. We figured both benches would play it out for nothing, and it decided the game. Our take now: the bench won this one, and those 20 offensive rebounds are the one thing from October that should worry us before Wednesday in Memphis.
How the bench turned it
Phoenix led 65-59 at the half, and a 12-5 Suns run early in the third rebuilt a double-digit lead, per the team site. "Rebounding against this Jazz team is just free for the Suns, lol," one fan wrote.
Hardy turned to his second unit late in the third, and that's where the game flipped. A 9-0 run got the Jazz within one before Phoenix took a 95-90 lead into the fourth. Brice Sensabaugh was the spark. He kept the offense moving in his minutes, opened the fourth with a quick burst of scoring, and finished with 16 in 17:20, 4-of-7 from three. Jared Koch, deputy editor at Utah Jazz On SI, titled a whole section of his takeaways "Brice Sensabaugh Looks Like a Dangerous Bench Scorer," and we won't argue. One fan in the game thread watched it happen: "Brice bringing the Jazz back in the game by himself."
He had help. Ace Bailey didn't need many shots to matter: 3-of-3 from the field, 5-of-6 at the line, 12 points and a team-best +7. That's the aggressive Ace we want every night. Josh Green made 3 of his 4 shots for 8 points in 8:11, which is a lot of noise from a guy who's been fighting for minutes. Then Kyle Filipowski, in his preseason debut after sitting out with a back injury, checked in early in the fourth and came up with a steal and a bucket right away, per the team site. He finished with 6 points and 7 rebounds in 8:28.
Flip's steal and bucket were part of an extended 11-0 run that put Utah up three with about seven minutes left, and the teams traded buckets from there. @SleeperJazz on Sensabaugh: "When the second unit needs a bucket, he’s our guy." And from the game thread: "Clean-up crew won it for the Jazz. Against the Suns bench players but there's heart and hustle there."
The starters had their moments. Lauri Markkanen led everybody with 19, Jackson scored 17 and Keyonte George 13. Darryn Peterson shot 4-of-12 but still put up 13 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, plus an early lob to Bailey that had @CHoltSports posting "LOUVRE IT." Markkanen and Jackson were done after the third, per the team site, with the Jazz down five.
"There’s a lot to take away," Will Hardy said, per the Jazz's team-site recap. He also said, "I believe in our team."
Twenty offensive rebounds
Phoenix won the boards 47-43. That sounds close until you split it: 20 offensive rebounds for the Suns, 9 for the Jazz. Turnovers were even at 18 apiece, so the extra possessions came off the glass, and Phoenix took 98 shots to Utah's 75. The Jazz covered for it at the free throw line, going 32-of-37 to the Suns' 18-of-26. That's 14 more points from the stripe, and it's the whole reason they survived the glass.
Khaman Maluach had 12 rebounds for Phoenix. Hayes had 7 in 24:42, and Jackson had 3 in 20:59. With Jusuf Nurkić out with his foot injury, this is the frontcourt Memphis gets Wednesday, and it gave up 20 offensive boards to a Suns team playing without Mark Williams.
Jackson's five fouls Friday also made it three straight games of foul trouble for him: four in the Nuggets rematch, five before halftime against the Spurs, and five more in Phoenix. Every minute he sits takes more size off a frontcourt that's already losing the glass.
Give Filipowski the backup center minutes
Koch titled another section "Jaxson Hayes Seemingly Locked Into Starting Five." He has Hayes as the fifth starter while Nurkić is out, because the Jazz need his size and rim protection, even though Hayes "hasn't exactly wowed through the preseason stretch of games." We agree Hayes starts. Who backs him up is the open spot, and Friday's box score fills it: Filipowski had 7 rebounds in 8:28, the same total Hayes got in 24:42. Hardy should give Flip those minutes, starting Wednesday.
He also shot 3-of-5, and one fan in the game thread saw something the box can't show: "I think he is the only guy I have seen actually box people out."
He's done this job before. Filipowski played 77 games last season, started 41 and averaged 7.2 rebounds in 23.4 minutes. "I’m just happy for him, it was a long summer and offseason," Hardy said of him, per the team site.
The fans raised the catch themselves. Those eight minutes came against Phoenix's deep bench. The same thread that cheered Flip also had this: "Not the forgotten bench crew playing the best defense all night, lmao." In the next breath, the commenter admitted "sure it's Suns scrubs now." Eight minutes against reserves don't prove he can handle starting centers every night. They do show he goes and gets the ball, and that's what the Jazz bigs were missing Friday.
A few fans in the threads want him starting over Hayes. We're with one postgame commenter: "Hoping he gets playing time as backup PF or C with Nurk out." That's our ask, ahead of Mo Bamba, who played 5:01 on Friday.
What we're watching Wednesday at Memphis
The Jazz finished the preseason 3-1. The regular season opens Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Memphis at 6 p.m. MT (full schedule).
- Offensive rebounds allowed. We set the line at 14 for Phoenix, and it stays there for Memphis.
- Jackson's foul count.
- Filipowski's first-half minutes. If he plays before halftime, Hardy saw what we saw.
- Bailey's minutes. He was +7 in 21:04 off the bench while Hayes played 24:42.
Sources: NBA.com box score, the Jazz's team-site recap, the r/UtahJazz game and postgame threads, @SleeperJazz and @CHoltSports on X, and Jared Koch's Jazz On SI takeaways. Last season's stats via the site's player data.