Utah Jazz Defeated by Denver in Ugly Home Opener

The first, inevitable dent to the good vibes has occurred – the Jazz lose a frustrating, hard-to-watch game to the Nuggets in their home opener, 106-117. We all knew that this was not the perfect team, but still… it’s never fun to be reminded like this.

The first quarter was more in-line with the strong quality of play we saw from the preseason opener in Boulder, Colorado; the shots were falling, the players were vibing, and the defense seemed even a bit improved. After this strong start, however, the game was exhaustingly ugly until the bitter end. Part of this was the fault of the Jazz and their sloppy play, but the 64 combined fouls from both teams led to a stilted gameplay experience – if I hadn’t signed on to write the recap, there’s no chance I would’ve dedicated nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes to a meaningless preseason game. To be sure, most of these were valid calls; it appears to me that the coaching staff have been preaching defensive intensity to a group of players inexperienced with that aspect of the game. They’re trying, but often by putting their arms all over their assignment (the zone defense which often put a guard against Jokic in the post didn’t help) instead of mastering defensive fundamentals.

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What made this game more of a struggle to sit through was the lack of truly impressive performances from anyone on the Jazz roster. Darryn led the team in scoring, but I think he played far from a perfect game. I came away from this performance wowed by his talent in shot-making (and, less obviously, impressed by some neat passes), but slightly worried regarding how limited he looks as an athlete when matched up with NBA players. Some of this can be attributed to his handle, sure, but frequently he had to settle for very difficult shots because his preferred driving lane was stone-walled by one of the Nuggets wings. Without the burst to get by or the strength to muscle through, Darryn will be very reliant on screening actions and off-ball movement to begin his career… which is fine! Those are valuable skills for him to learn, and will provide the foundations of stardom if he truly…

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Publish date : 2026-10-07 04:52:00

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