Key #3 – Continued bench play, but get major contributions from starters
I touched on this in some detail earlier in the week, but I’ll repeat it briefly here. The Utah Jazz reserves have been phenomenal, and especially in the game against Portland were instrumental to the win. However, the starters haven’t exactly looked great. And that needs to change on Thursday.
Utah’s regular rotation was punished by the likes of Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry against the Raptors, and Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic against the Blazers. Fortunately, the young Kings don’t have anybody matching their caliber, but they do have some up-and-coming talent that could very well do some damage.
As such, the Jazz starters need to be cautious to not become complacent and also need to be prepared to hit the floor ready to put on a show. They’ve largely underwhelmed overall in preseason, and in order for the team and its fans to feel good about what they have on their hands heading into the regular season, it will be important for them to have a bit of a bounce-back game.
Each of them, particularly Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles, have had their brilliant moments, but as a unit they just haven’t looked like themselves or the cohesive group from a year ago that we hoped to see. Turning that around in Sacramento will be a massively important step.