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Oklahoma City • NBA teams usually abhor the kind of preseason road trip that the Utah Jazz just finished on Tuesday with a 105-91 win over Oklahoma City.
Six nights? Four games? Three games in the span of 96 hours? In the preseason?
Find a veteran team that will sign up for that kind of schedule, and you may also find Big Foot lurking somewhere in the wilderness.
But the Jazz aren't a veteran team. They are one of the youngest outfits in the NBA. And any experience they can get before it all gets real next week is fine by coach Quin Snyder.
In that sense, experience is all that matters.
"We had some slippage on this road trip," Snyder said. "But that's typical when you aren't practicing. I thought we were able to dig in a little bit. Usually, when you are fatigued, that isn't the case."
Rest assured, the Jazz were happy to return to Salt Lake City. The preseason grind is going to get to everybody at some point. Despite that, the Jazz took care of business, handling the Kevin Durant-less Thunder by double-digits. That speaks to focus. That speaks to the ability to finish a long road trip the right way. And it speaks to how Utah was able to thrive on both ends of the floor, despite being tired.
"We learned a lot about our defense," Hayward said. "We learned that if we stick to the system defensively, we can be really effective. It was a long road trip, but we learned a lot about ourselves, and this was a valuable experience."
Utah finished 2-2 on the trip. The Jazz lost a close one to the Los Angeles Clippers. They were beaten two nights later by Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers after sitting Hayward and Favors for the entire second half.
They beat those same Lakers to start the trip, and they finished it off by defeating OKC.
Along the way, forward Trevor Booker got into a dust-up with Blake Griffin. Trey Burke continued his eye-opening play at point guard. Enes Kanter was benched in one game for missing defensive rotations, and broke out with 27 points in the finale against the Thunder. The rookies — Dante Exum and Rodney Hood — looked like rookies, struggling with turnovers and missed open shots.
"It's hard being on the road for an extended amount of time," Favors said. "The one thing we learned that's most important is to take care of our bodies and to get proper rest every night. But I think this trip did a lot for us and for our younger guys. It was a good experience to get something like this out of the way so early."
Heading into the final preseason game Friday at Phoenix, Utah is 5-2 in games that don't count. Now, there's a sense of anticipation for the regular season. Much of this stems from curiosity. At this point, even the Jazz players want to know if the success is a mirage, or not.
If Snyder wants to clean up a specific area between now and the real thing, it's turnovers. That's what allowed the Lakers to rally on Sunday, and it has been a consistent struggle for the bulk of the preseason.
"We have had some sloppy passes," Snyder said. "I do think we took better care of the ball against Oklahoma City. But we have to be consistent in that area, going forward."
Twitter: @tjonessltrib —
Jazz road trip
• Utah went 2-2 on the trip.
• The Jazz let a big lead slide on Sunday night against the Lakers in the second half.
• Trey Burke missed the second Lakers game (rest).
• Jazz have to trim their roster to 15 players by Saturday. —
Jazz at Suns
Friday, 7 p.m.
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