Four overreactions from the Utah Jazz's loss to Houston

The Utah Jazz preseason has begun, with a road trip to the Houston Rockets that had a lot of fireworks on offense, in a game where both teams scored over 125 points on the night.

While the Jazz fell 140-127 to a more experienced Rockets team, they did have a double-digit lead at one point and came back from multiple deficits in admirable fashion, with the young guys leading the way. Here are the four things that stood out last night:

1. Ace Bailey looks like a SUPERSTAR!

Bailey had a steady first half, with nine points by the break. But he turned it on after that, finishing with 25 points on 11-for-16 shooting from the field, timely passes to teammates, and drawing more attention from the defense than most rookies do.

With scoring at all levels, Ace Bailey looked NBA-ready against the Rockets, moving well without the ball, dunking, cutting through traffic, making nice turnarounds and corner threes.

Based on the social media responses to last night's performance, he's already a superstar in the making. The Jazz fanbase is more excited than they have been since Donovan Mitchell, the last Jazz superstar in the making.

2. Taylor Hendricks is BACK!

Taylor Hendricks returning to the court after an abbreviated 2024-25 season was great to see, and lost in the accolades over Ace Bailey's debut performance, Hendricks put up a nice showing with 15 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and 4-8 shooting from deep over 27 minutes.

His mobility and athleticism were on full display, and Jazz fans can only hope that the tantalizing glimpses they saw over his first two seasons are translated into full-court impact this year.

Hendricks looked much more comfortable than even a year ago, and witih more performances like this, he will surely be in line for big minutes during the 2025-26 season. Should the Jazz move forward with trading Lauri Markkanen at some point, Hendricks stands to inherit a starting role for the Utah Jazz.

3. The Utah Jazz defense is AWFUL!

While the Jazz offense played well against Houston, the defense surrendered a lot of points. 140 points is a lot for any NBA game, and going back to 2002-03, the Jazz haven't given up anywhere close to that in a preseason game. The closest result was a 2023-24 preseason tilt against Portland (won by the Jazz 138-133).

Houston went to the basket at will throughout the game, with little resistance. You can be certain that Will Hardy and his staff took notice.

Jusuf Nurkic, starting at center in the absence of Walker Kessler, Kyle Filipowski, and Mo Bamba, managed a good stat line, but was beaten on switches and looked very slow laterally all night. Fortunately, he won't be getting starter's minutes during the season unless something goes very, very wrong for the Utah Jazz.

4. Walter Clayton looks LOST!

As the other Jazz rookie to see the court for the first time, Walter Clayton Jr. was nearly invisible on the night, going 3-10 from the field and 1-7 from deep for seven points and three assists, and was a box plus/minus -13 for the night, worst on the team.

For a seasoned college player who was expected to be NBA-ready, Clayton's performance was disappointing, especially with Isaiah Collier sitting out this one.

Clayton had a real opportunity to show he belonged in the rotation with a good showing against a Rockets team that was missing a true point guard. Instead, Keyonte George responded to the opportunity and had a good outing, moving Clayton out of the rotation for now.

And remember, these are overreactions to the first game. In a month or two, we'll look back and realize that some of these were wrong, but don't be surprised if they turn out to be right. That's the fun part about overreacting to early results!