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As the Utah Jazz prepared to meet the Detroit Pistons on Friday morning in shootaround, much of the noise around the team centered on stopping Reggie Jackson, the dynamic Pistons point guard.

The last time the Pistons visited Vivint Smart Home Arena, they walked away with a 95-92 win, with Jackson as the catalyst. He scored 29 points on 12-19 shooting. He handed out four assists and grabbed three rebounds.

"He's a big part of what we have to do, if we want to have success against them," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "He's a great player and he took over the game against us the last time he was here."

Detroit wraps much of its offense around Jackson, and initial pick and roll action between him and all-star center Andre Drummond. They have shooters like Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris on the wings, waiting to knock home open 3-point looks. And that's made the Pistons difficult to guard.

So the Jazz know that stopping Jackson's initial penetration into the lane will be a key. If they can do that, it allows their wing defenders to play tighter defense on the perimeter. But if Jackson is consistently able to put a foot in the paint, that opens up Detroit's entire offense.

"Reggie's a great player, and he's someone that we have to be mindful of," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. "He can hurt you in a lot of ways."

Of course, the differences between tonight, and last January are significant with the Jazz. Raul Neto started that game, played six minutes and went 0-1 from the field. Trey Burke, now with the Washington Wizards, played 22 minutes that night, and went 0-8 from the field. George Hill will start tonight, and he and Shelvin Mack will eat up most — if not all — of the point guard minutes.

The Jazz are hoping that helps in their crusade to corral Jackson, and control what he does best. Another difference? Last year, the Jazz were coming off a rough Eastern Conference trip that included an epic blizzard in New York. Tonight, Utah is coming off two days of rest, while the Pistons are playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

Still, Jackson is a key to what Detroit wants to do. The Jazz are aware of that, and they know that making things tougher on him would be a help for their hopes of winning a second straight home game.

— Tony Jones