About that preseason…
I hate to say I told you so, but…
OK, that’s a lie. I’m loving it.
Nee-ner, nee-ner, nee-ner!
In Wednesday’s Deseret News I wrote about how insignificant the preseason was in the big picture.
The Jazz went 8-0 this year, a franchise record. What do they do on opening night in Denver? They lay an egg, trailing from start to finish. They were awful, looking like a team that had played 80 games, rather than one.
How a team can be fired up for the preseason and not the regular season is a mystery to me. Denver’s good, but the Jazz beat Denver in last spring’s playoffs, and that was without Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko. Now they come back with a rejuvenated team that includes Al Jefferson and Raja Bell, against the same Nuggets, and flop.
Since it’s an 82-game season, a lot can change. Utah’s meltdown in Denver isn’t the end-all for the Jazz. At the same time, last season the Jazz finished two games out of second place and four games out of first in the Western Conference standings. These early games count, especially those against divisional opponents. Last year Utah tied with Denver in the overall standings but lost the tiebreaker, thus opening the series on the road.
I’m pretty sure Jerry Sloan has already mentioned that to his team, in a variety of terms.
Is this loss insurmountable? Not by a long shot. But it’s obviously embarrassing. The Jazz are already one game down against divisional opponents.
Someone needs to tell these guys the bell has rung and school is in session.
The preseason was just a dress rehearsal.