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Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors hugged former teammate Enes Kanter after another intense reunion and walked off the court Wednesday night as the NBA Northwest Division leaders.
Never mind that division titles now have far less value than the last time the Jazz enjoyed such an achievement, nine seasons ago. Even if all the Jazz earned with a 109-89 victory over Oklahoma City was temporary ownership of the No. 6 slot in the Western Conference playoff picture, their performance was more than meaningless.
Mixing in Wednesday's news of a collective bargaining agreement between NBA owners and players that may help small-market teams keep their stars — that means you, Gordon Hayward — this became a very good night at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
No matter that Kevin Durant is long gone from OKC, the way the Jazz (16-10) played from start to finish against a good team was encouraging, with Rodney Hood scoring 25 points and Derrick Favors getting meaningful minutes after a month's absence. They shared the ball, hit open shots, made Russell Westbrook work like crazy for his 27 points and genuinely looked like the best team in the Northwest, for whatever that's worth.
As coach Quin Snyder wondered afterward, "What standings do you look at?"
Yet whether you view the Jazz as No. 1 in the division, No. 6 in the West or No. 8 in the NBA, they're trending well. Injuries aside, this team is starting to resemble what it's supposed to look like.
"Guys are a little bit older, a little bit more experienced," Hayward said. "We're trying to win basketball games now."
Hayward caught himself and smiled, realizing how that sentence sounded. The Jazz were, you know, trying to win in the past. The difference is they're expecting to win now, and that's how they're playing with nine victories in 11 games. In a season when the Jazz have to impress Hayward that they're capable of becoming contenders someday and encourage him to stay, they're making progress.
And they're in first place — which looks good in the newspaper, anyway. "If there's bonus points for being in first tomorrow, I'd take it," Snyder said before the game, downplaying the potential achievement this early in the season. "With that said, it's hard to ignore."
Its value is difficult to quantify, though. The NBA addressed that issue last season, changing the playoff format. Division champions no longer are guaranteed top-four seeds, so other than adding a notation to the banner in the arena rafters, there's really no prize.
Of course, merely discussing this subject is a good sign for the Jazz, because division titles hardly have been a conversation topic around here lately.
Regardless of the division title's devaluation, Oklahoma City is one of the teams the Jazz should leapfrog in the West standings this season.
The Thunder have played surprisingly well after losing Durant to Golden State in free agency. When that move happened in July, I declared it a victory for the Jazz, because the Warriors were weakening — I may or may not have have used the word "decimating" — another Western Conference team.
The Jazz went a combined 0-8 against Golden State and OKC last season, so I figured there was no harm in the Warriors' getting better at the Thunder's expense. With considerable help from Westbrook, though, Thunder coach Billy Donovan has kept his team in the league's top tier. "You want to make sure that the sum of your whole group is greater than the parts," he said.
That's the Jazz's story, actually. The math worked in the home team's favor Wednesday, with Dante Exum and Shelvin Mack hounding Westbrook during a 7-for-25 shooting night. Snyder was careful not to give his own guys too much credit for those numbers, but they deserved it.
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