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Denver • The coach wanted it to be a test of resilience.
A night earlier, Gordon Hayward sat at his locker and voiced frustrations with himself and the shooting woes that had become something more than a "little bit" of a slump early in the season. Forward Trevor Booker, meanwhile, had been unable to make a layup, going 0-for-6 from the field Wednesday night in Salt Lake City. His frustration first took the form of a punch thrown at the basket stanchion and then morphed into something else as the Utah Jazz settled into their hotel here in the early hours Thursday morning.
"I was pretty down on myself," Booker said. "I couldn't even sleep."
Rest should come a little easier now.
Hayward and Booker broke out their funks, and a Utah Jazz team in need of redemption after a dismal home opener the night before bounced back in a big way with a 96-84 road win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.
Hayward scored a game-high 20 points and Booker came off the bench to score 12 and help key a decisive fourth-quarter run.
To do it, the Jazz needed to shake off a Trail Blazers hangover and over come an early double-digit deficit at the Pepsi Center. Utah connected on 35 percent of their shots in the first quarter, falling behind by 13 points in the opening period. But unlike a night earlier, when his team looked out of sorts for long stretches, Jazz coach Quin Snyder was encouraged by what he saw.
Especially from the team's young captain.
"Gordon more than anybody just made the right decision every time," Snyder said after the Jazz improved to 3-2 on the season. "Sometimes it was a pass to an open teammate and a miss. … That happened three or four times and we kept playing the right way."
The Jazz ended the first quarter on an 8-0 run to trim the lead and closed the second quarter with an 11-2 spurt to make it a one-possession game at halftime.
Utah lost Derrick Favors in the second half. The power forward, who has been battling illness, started the game and played 15 minutes, scoring six points and grabbing three rebounds before having to sit the final two quarters.
Nevertheless, the Jazz put together a solid second half and a dominating fourth-quarter performance that sealed the deal.
The Jazz outscored Denver 31-20 in the final frame, holding the Nuggets to under 30 percent shooting in the process.
"We really wanted to come back and be the team we'd been the first three games," center Rudy Gobert, who had eight points, 16 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Denver's Danilo Gallinari scored a team-high 18 points. Former Jazzman Randy Foye had 11 off the Nuggets' bench and forward Kenneth Faried finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.
But Jazz countered by outscoring the Denver bench 52-34 thanks to solid nights from forward Joe Ingles and guards Trey Burke (12 points, eight assists) and Alec Burks (12 points, eight assists).
Hayward scored seven of his game-high 20 points in the fourth and Booker helped spark the Jazz victory by grabbing two key offensive rebounds and scoring six points in the quarter.
"I didn't have the kind of game I wanted [Wednesday], so I knew I had to step up tonight," Booker said.
Added Hayward, "It's good to kind of get out of it. I'm still not there at all with where I want to be, but the rhythm is starting to get there a little bit."
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