The rebuilding Utah Jazz, fresh off an opening night thrashing of the Denver Nuggets, will travel to Minnesota to take on old friend Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. Utah, under new head coach and former Celtics assistant Will Hardy, easily took out the Nuggets 123-102 on Wednesday night at home. Minnesota, meanwhile, took a 115-108 home-win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. The opening tip is scheduled for 8:00pm EST.
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New Jazz CEO Danny Ainge decided to go all in during the offseason and move on from a roster that never quite got over the hump in the Western Conference. Gone are long-time Jazz stalwarts Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles. In there place, the Jazz have added the likes of Lauri Markkanen, Kelly Olynyk, Jarred Vanderbilt and Collin Sexton. Makkanen, Olynyk and Vanderbilt all started on opening night and Sexton carried the load for the second team in a surprising 123-102 win over the Denver Nuggets. At least for one night, the Jazz new look team made beautiful music. Sexton had 20 points off the bench and Markkanen added 17 points in the opening night win.
“There’s a real camaraderie with this group even at this early stage because I think all of our guys understand that none of them can do it on their own,” Hardy said.
But first…
Game ball for Coach's first win ????#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/3EhBPmbJgV
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 20, 2022
Hardy comes to the Jazz from a Celtics' staff that stressed floor spacing and a defensive mentality. It will be interesting to see how much at that he can impart on this young Jazz team. In the opener, Utah shot 51% from the field overall and 42% from 3pt range. The Utah bench scored a whopping 68 points led by 20 from Sexton, 16 from veteran Rudy Gay and 15 from Malik Beasley. On the defensive side of the ball, the Jazz did an excellent job getting out on shooters as they held Denver to just 22% from 3pt range. They also surprisingly out-rebounded Denver 43-35 on the night and won the turnover battle 21-19.
Injury Update: Reserve center Udoka Azubuike is listed as day-to-day with an ankle injury.
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