This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As the Utah Jazz gear up to face the Phoenix Suns tonight at Talking Stick Resort Arena, coach Quin Snyder is simply looking for progress.

It doesn't have to be substantial progress, mind you. He simply wants the second preseason game to be a bit better than the first preseason game.

Of course, that may not be too much to ask of the Jazz, who sputtered on both ends during Monday night's contest in Portland. The first five minutes were about as good as you can ask. The remaining 43 minutes were about as uneven as you can get.

That's bound to improve, as many of those issues could be attributed to unfamiliarity within the offense — and with each other. Simply put, it's going to take the new guys time to gel with the incumbents. But with a game under their belts, the chemistry should take a step forward. Or at least Snyder hopes that's the case.

"It's going to be a process," Snyder said. "Guys are going to have bad games, that doesn't mean certain lineups can't play together. We're going to continue to substitute, play certain guys, and evaluate."

The Jazz are buoyed by the play of Gordon Hayward, who's been sensational through training camp and continued that on Monday night, by scoring all 17 of his points during the first half. Hayward played sparingly in the second half against Portland, but was the best player on the floor during his normal first- and second-quarter rotations. His jumper looked sure and true. The extra strength in his upper body was noticeable in the way defenders bounced off him on the way to the basket. He was efficient, and he simply made the game look easy.

"I think the game is slowing down for me more than ever," Hayward said. "We worked hard during the summer, and we talked about playing at my pace, and not letting guys speed me up."

LINEUP CHANGES

Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood will both sit out of Wednesday night's game, with left knee soreness and a left hand sprain, respectively. The Jazz said both players went through shootaround, and that both are sitting out for precautionary reasons.

In their place, Dante Exum and Boris Diaw will probably get starts. Snyder said he's comfortable with Joe Johnson and Trey Lyles coming off the bench in their roles. He said he wants to get Exum valuable minutes.

"It doesn't matter if Dante is playing the point guard or shooting guard spot," Snyder said. "We just want him to play."

Joe Ingles and Shelvin Mack should see a spike in rotation minutes tonight, along with Lyles. Hayward, George Hill and Rudy Gobert are projected to round out the starting five.

— Tony Jones