This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Despite the NBA's attempts to limit back-to-back games for its teams, everyone is going to face fatigue at multiple points during the season.
That's just a fact. There are 82 games. There will still be games on consecutive nights and the tail ends of long road trips are bound to yield tired legs.
The Utah Jazz received their first taste of this in Friday night's 101-85 preseason loss to the Phoenix Suns. They looked great in the first quarter, bouncing around, getting out in transition and scoring 30 points in the period. But then they collapsed in the final three periods, struggling to score, struggling to defend or generally do much positive on either end of the floor.
"We were stuck in mud," small forward Gordon Hayward said.
So this is what the Jazz are faced with: How to play through the fatigue and still play winning basketball. The tired legs weren't alarming on Friday night. Indeed, it was bound to happen with the Jazz being away from home for a week by that point.
But the lack of good basketball had to be a little concerning. The Jazz didn't make good decisions offensively. They didn't play well defensively. The Suns beat them to loose balls, and outhustled the Jazz on both ends.
That's why coach Quin Snyder acknowledged that his team was tired — but didn't give them a complete pass, either. Snyder knows when the regular season rolls around, everyone will deal with the same conditions at different points.
How they react to those conditions will be telling, one way or the other.
"There's going to be times during the year where you're fatigued," Snyder said. "I think the really good teams manage that as best as possible. I'm not saying we weren't fatigued; I think that was there. But at the same time, I think there's more we can do. I'd rather figure out how to be better, even when you're tired."
Team unity
The Jazz went en masse to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night to see the Utah Utes defeat California 30-24. Backup center Tibor Pleiss tweeted about watching American football for the first time, and posted a photo of himself flashing the "U" sign.
Going hard
Utah held a spirited practice on Sunday morning, going through several scrimmage situations and competing hard against each other. With his team clearly tired, Snyder gave his team Saturday off, which is why Sunday's practice was more intense. In all — including film, individual workouts and the team practice — Sunday's workout lasted three and a half hours.
His debut
Bryce Cotton played minutes for the first time in the preseason against the Suns. He scored 10 points, on 3-of-10 shooting. Cotton is competing with Raul Neto for minutes backing up Trey Burke. He had two turnovers and one assist.
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