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Few things are as important as a good night's sleep.

Just ask Derrick Favors and the Utah Jazz.

Favors missed 16 games while being sidelined for nearly a month with back and hip pain. At shootaround on Monday, Favors was asked again what he's doing to prevent a recurrence of the injury.

"Try not to sleep on my stomach, basically," he said. "I think that's what caused it."

Jazz coach Quin Snyder wasn't exactly buying that story.

"I think he might have been having a little fun [with the media]," the coach said. "Anytime you have a back [injury], you're searching. Is it the car I drive? The bed I sleep in? All those things. You know, picking up both twins at the same time."

But in addition to running extra wind sprints to get his conditioning back, and going through extra drills to knock the rust off his post moves, Favors is having to spend his nights working on changing his sleeping habits.

"I try everything, man," he said. "Just try to stay on my back. If I feel like I'm turning over, I try to wake up. Just stay on my back."

Favors also said he's upgrading his bed in the wake of his injury.

"I'm in the process of changing my mattress now," he said, adding that he was looking for something firmer. "It wasn't soft, but it was kind of outdated. I had it for a couple of years."

Utah went 7-9 while Favors was out. So if the Jazz miss out on the playoffs this season, Favors might own the most hated mattress in the state.

It can be difficult for a man of Favors' size to find a good mattress.

"I had to customize it to be sure I had space," said the 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert. (Just to put Jazz fans at ease, Gobert said his mattress is good.)

Perhaps Favors could have asked forward Joe Ingles, who in the offseason did a commercial spot for one mattress company, to help him out. Or, Favors said, perhaps reaching out to former Jazzman Al Jefferson, who once infamously purchased a massive 10-by-12 bed, might have helped.

"I should have called Big Al," Favors joked, "try to get his mattress."

A setting Sun

The Phoenix Suns on Monday fired Jeff Hornacek following a loss to the Dallas Maverick's, his team's 19th defeat in its last 21 games. Hornacek was in the middle of just his third season as an NBA head coach and just a season and a half removed from finishing as the runner up in the Coach of the Year voting.

According to a Yahoo report, the Suns will name former Jazz point guard Earl Watson as the team's interim coach. Hornacek's dismal came as a surprise to the players he once coached as an assistant in Utah.

"It was a shock," Favors said. "Jeff's a goody guy, a good coach. I hate that it happened to him. … He helped me out a lot. He helped a number of guys out. Hopefully he'll get another job."

Hornacek joined the Suns in 2013 after three seasons as an assistant with the Jazz and compiled a record of 101 wins and 112 losses. Jazz forward Gordon Hayward called Hornacek's firing an "unfortunate" part of the NBA reality.

"Jeff's a good guy and, I think, a great coach," Hayward said. "I think it's a business in the NBA and coaches get fired throughout the season and the offseason, players get traded. It is what it is. That's their situation. I just know him from here and he's a good friend."

Safety first

The NBA will no longer allow sideline floor cameras to operate at midcourt, a decision made to improve safety for players and referees.

According to an ESPN report, the change was requested by National Basketball Referees Association, which claimed the increase in number and depth of 3-point attempts had pushed referees out farther along the edge of the court, leaving them more vulnerable to collisions with cameramen at center court.

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